July 27, 2000

Contact:
Lynne Kimura, 415/357-4176, lkimura@sfmoma.org
Libby Garrison, 415/357-4177, lgarrison@sfmoma.org
Sandra Farish Sloan, 415/357-4174, ssloan@sfmoma.org

SFMOMA ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF MADELEINE GRYNSZTEJN AS SENIOR CURATOR OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Director David A. Ross announced today the appointment of Madeleine Grynsztejn as SFMOMA's Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture. Known most recently for her accomplishments as curator of the 1999 Carnegie International, Grynsztejn has been the curator of contemporary art at the Carnegie Museum of Art since 1997. She will start at SFMOMA in early September 2000.

"Madeleine is one the most well-respected and accomplished curators at work in the museum world today," stated Ross. "She has had a remarkable 15-year career at three distinguished institutions and brings to SFMOMA exceptional skills in all aspects of the job. We are delighted to have Madeleine's original and progressive voice as part of our curatorial team. She has particular strength in post 1960s contemporary art--the focus of SFMOMA's acquisitions program--but also brings a solid background in the full breadth of modernism. Her deep interest in the range of media in 20th-century art and her commitment to education and the Museum's accessibility to the public make her an ideal match for SFMOMA."

Grynsztejn (pronounced GRIN-shtayn) joins curator Janet Bishop in the department of painting and sculpture and replaces Gary Garrels, who departed SFMOMA in May to join the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As senior curator of painting and sculpture, Grynsztejn will assume primary responsibility for the Department of Painting and Sculpture's many activities, including planning major exhibitions, proposing and guiding its acquisition process and engaging actively with artists, collectors and curatorial colleagues around the world.

Of her SFMOMA appointment, Grynsztejn says, "My experience organizing the Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art was especially gratifying and gave me a unique opportunity to acquaint myself intimately with contemporary art activity on a global level. I greatly look forward to contributing to the continued success and growth of SFMOMA, a preeminent art institution and a leader in 21st-century museums. And I am thrilled to be working with SFMOMA's patron community, whose passion for art and enthusiasm for the Museum is unparalleled. The prospect of working with David Ross and the Museum's Board and staff is especially appealing to me." Grynsztejn will live in San Francisco with her husband Tom Shapiro, a marketing professional.

Since the opening of SFMOMA's new home in 1995, the Museum has aggressively built its permanent collection with many highly publicized acquisitions of important paintings and sculpture. These have included masterworks by René Magritte, Piet Mondrian, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly and Cy Twombly, as well as new works by such younger artists as Doris Salcedo, Chris Ofili, John Currin and Matthew Barney. The Museum's permanent collection has also benefited from gifts from a number of significant private collections of modern and contemporary art, including the Anderson Pop Art Collection and the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection, which has donated over 300 works. Major exhibitions organized by SFMOMA's Department of Painting and Sculpture include Willem de Kooning: The Late Paintings, the 1980s (1995), Katharina Fritsch (1996), Inside Out: New Chinese Art (1999), Jasper Johns: New Paintings and Works on Paper (1999), Fact/Fiction: Contemporary Art That Walks the Line (2000) and Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective (2000).

As curator of the 1999 Carnegie International, Madeleine Grynsztejn traveled the world to assemble an exhibition that included works by 41 emerging and established artists from 22 countries. The exhibition received critical acclaim and brought record-breaking numbers of visitors to the museum. Her other exhibitions at the Carnegie included a series of "Forum" exhibitions focusing on new works by such artists as Diana Thater, James Welling and William Kentridge, as well as Invention/Intervention: Kiki Smith and the Museums (1998), which drew on the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. During her tenure, Grynsztejn augmented the Carnegie's collection with major acquisitions of works by such artists as Mel Bochner, John Currin, Olafur Eliasson, Alex Katz, Yayoi Kusama, Edward Ruscha, Richard Tuttle, Luc Tuymans and Jeff Wall.

Prior to joining the Carnegie Museum of Art, Grynsztejn was associate curator (1992-96) and acting department head (1996) for 20th-century painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, where her exhibitions included Affinities: Chuck Close and Tom Friedman (1996) and About Place: Recent Art of the Americas (1995). As associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (1986-1992), she specialized in commissioning new projects with artists, including Alfredo Jaar, Celia Muñoz and Krzysztof Wodiczko. She also co-organized Dos Ciudades/Two Cities, a series of exhibitions, publications and projects located in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, tied to the theme of the U.S./Mexico border, which became one of the defining exhibitions of the multicultural moment of the early 1990s.

Born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, and London, Grynsztejn studied at the Université de Sorbonne in Paris, receiving her undergraduate degree in history of art and French from Newcomb College of Tulane University, New Orleans, and her master's degree in history of art from Columbia University, New York. A former Helena Rubenstein Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Grynsztejn has written and lectured extensively on contemporary art; served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Galeria de Arte Nacional in Caracas, among other agencies; and acted as a juror for the American Academy in Rome, the Munich Kunstpreis in Germany and the Tiffany Foundation Biennial Awards. She has also served on advisory committees for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the American Center in Paris.


Copyright © 1996-2008 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art