courtesy of the Portland Art
MuseumDawson Carr sees enough opportunity
for the Portland Art Museum's European collection that he's leaving the
National Gallery in London to take on a curating post at PAM.
The Portland Art Museum has appointed a full-time curator of European art for the first time in its history, selecting Dawson W. Carr to take responsibility for all European painting, sculpture, and drawings from the period up to 1850.
Chief curator Bruce Guenther, in a museum press release, called Carr “an internationally known scholar from a prestigious institution” who “has a sterling reputation in the field with a distinguished record of exhibitions and publications.”
Carr, 60, indeed comes with impressive credentials. He’s currently the curator of Spanish and later Italian paintings and head of display at The National Gallery in London, where he’s worked since 2003. He’s spent more than a decade as associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and served in various roles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He holds masters and doctorate degrees from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
A native of Miami, Carr initially studied theatrical design as an undergraduate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “But I took art history to support that work, and I got hooked,” he said by phone from London on Thursday. He developed expertise especially in Spanish and Italian art of the 16th--18th centuries.
In January, Carr will become the Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art, a position that was endowed in 2008, but only now is being filled. According to Beth Heinrich, director of public relations, the $2 million endowment was pledged over five years. “Our policy is that until an endowment has been fully funded, we’re not going to spend the money.”
The endowment was part of what persuaded Carr to come to a much smaller museum than those where he’s spent the bulk of his career.
“When an institution steps up to the plate and has an endowed position in European art, at this point in time, people sit up and take notice,” he said.
“The London experience is an extraordinary one. As an American, I never dreamed I’d get to work with the caliber of items that I have here...But the National Gallery was great a century before I was born and will be great after I’m dust. Portland is a place where I can make the most significant contribution, and that’s the real attraction.”
Carr also expressed excitement about Portland’s widely celebrated quality of life, its proximity to wilderness, and a rare small-city sophistication that he said reminds him of Glasgow (“There’s a liveliness about it. It values the weird, and being a bit anarchic.”)
But what he called his “adventure” will be developing and showcasing a small but promising European collection.
“The collection there has some distinctions. It has very good paintings and objects from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation -- it’s one of the institutions that made out really well on the Kress Collection dispersal. And there’s a core of Italian and Netherlandish things that are very fine.
“The kinds of works of art that are going to make a significant difference to that collection are not going to come cheap -- although sometimes you can get lucky. What you want are things with real wall power, that keep people coming back again.”
Between a need for “wall power” and a plan to provide “smaller, more focused shows that will give context to the finer pieces,” Carr promised an accessible balance for the public.
“It all has to be balanced and fit together,” he said. “The reason people like me get doctorates and then work in museums instead of in academia is we’re interested in this much bigger, broader audience. It won’t get academic with me. I’m too interested in engaging people.”
The Portland Art Museum has appointed a full-time curator of European art for the first time in its history, selecting Dawson W. Carr to take responsibility for all European painting, sculpture, and drawings from the period up to 1850.
Chief curator Bruce Guenther, in a museum press release, called Carr “an internationally known scholar from a prestigious institution” who “has a sterling reputation in the field with a distinguished record of exhibitions and publications.”
Carr, 60, indeed comes with impressive credentials. He’s currently the curator of Spanish and later Italian paintings and head of display at The National Gallery in London, where he’s worked since 2003. He’s spent more than a decade as associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and served in various roles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He holds masters and doctorate degrees from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
A native of Miami, Carr initially studied theatrical design as an undergraduate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “But I took art history to support that work, and I got hooked,” he said by phone from London on Thursday. He developed expertise especially in Spanish and Italian art of the 16th--18th centuries.
In January, Carr will become the Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art, a position that was endowed in 2008, but only now is being filled. According to Beth Heinrich, director of public relations, the $2 million endowment was pledged over five years. “Our policy is that until an endowment has been fully funded, we’re not going to spend the money.”
The endowment was part of what persuaded Carr to come to a much smaller museum than those where he’s spent the bulk of his career.
“When an institution steps up to the plate and has an endowed position in European art, at this point in time, people sit up and take notice,” he said.
“The London experience is an extraordinary one. As an American, I never dreamed I’d get to work with the caliber of items that I have here...But the National Gallery was great a century before I was born and will be great after I’m dust. Portland is a place where I can make the most significant contribution, and that’s the real attraction.”
Carr also expressed excitement about Portland’s widely celebrated quality of life, its proximity to wilderness, and a rare small-city sophistication that he said reminds him of Glasgow (“There’s a liveliness about it. It values the weird, and being a bit anarchic.”)
But what he called his “adventure” will be developing and showcasing a small but promising European collection.
“The collection there has some distinctions. It has very good paintings and objects from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation -- it’s one of the institutions that made out really well on the Kress Collection dispersal. And there’s a core of Italian and Netherlandish things that are very fine.
“The kinds of works of art that are going to make a significant difference to that collection are not going to come cheap -- although sometimes you can get lucky. What you want are things with real wall power, that keep people coming back again.”
Between a need for “wall power” and a plan to provide “smaller, more focused shows that will give context to the finer pieces,” Carr promised an accessible balance for the public.
“It all has to be balanced and fit together,” he said. “The reason people like me get doctorates and then work in museums instead of in academia is we’re interested in this much bigger, broader audience. It won’t get academic with me. I’m too interested in engaging people.”
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