Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles Director Richard Kushawlek

Richard Koshalek Named Director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Friday, February 27, 2009

Richard Koshalek has been named director of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, effective April xiii.

Koshalek, 67, was president of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., from 1999 until Jan 2009. Before that, he served as director of The Museum of Contemporary Fine art in Los Angeles for well-nigh 20 years. At both institutions, he was noted for his commitment to new creative initiatives, including commissioned works, scholarly exhibitions and publications and the building of new facilities that garnered architectural acclamation. He worked with architect Frank Gehry on the design and structure of MOCA's Geffen Contemporary (1983), a renovated warehouse popularly known equally the Temporary Contemporary. He also worked with the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki on the museum's permanent abode in Los Angeles (1986).

"Richard Koshalek has vast feel in both the instruction and museum worlds," said Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough. "His creativity brought modern and contemporary art to touch on bug of the mean solar day and will help the museum and the Institution reach wide audiences in technologically and aesthetically exciting new ways."

"I am immensely excited to come to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden," said Koshalek. "This establishment, more than most, is at the perfect time and place to brand a unique contribution non only to the history of mod and contemporary art, but to the larger appreciation of the role of the arts in society. Given its identify in the nation's capital, as well as its proximity to a peerless range of cultural, diplomatic and civic resources, the Hirshhorn can be a goad for new creative and collaborative energy in many arenas."

As director, deputy director and chief curator of Los Angeles' MOCA for nearly two decades (1980-1999), Koshalek grew the institution from a staff of three people, no collection and $50,000 into a globe-renowned museum with a staff of 75, a collection of 4,000 works (including many intact collections) that oft traveled to other museums and a budget of more than $15 million. Under his leadership, MOCA completed multiple uppercase campaigns and in 1999 had an endowment of nearly $l million. He also co-curated many major exhibitions, including shows on Advertizing Reinhardt, Robert Irwin (with Kerry Brougher, currently the acting director of the Hirshhorn) and Richard Serra, likewise as "End of the Century: A History of 20th-Century Architecture."

He began his career at the Walker Fine art Middle in Minneapolis, serving as registrar, banana curator and so curator from 1967 to 1972. He served as assistant director of the Visual Arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts for two years (1972-1974) and then moved to Texas to become manager of the Modern Fine art Museum of Fort Worth (formerly the Fort Worth Fine art Museum) from
1974-1976.

A native of Wausau, Wis., Koshalek earned a bachelor'south caste (1965) in architecture and a master's degree (1967) in compages and art history from the University of Minnesota; in addition, he recently received one of the university'south highest honors, the Outstanding Achievement Award.

Amidst Koshalek's professional person activities, he has served as chair of the selection committee for the architect (Gehry) of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and he was a member of the committee that selected Herzog and de Meuron for the Tate Modern. He was on the invitee faculty for the Globe Economic Forum in 2002 and 2003, and in 1999, he was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French authorities for his support of French art and architecture.

Koshalek succeeds Olga Viso, the previous manager who had been with the Hirshhorn Museum for 12 years. She served equally director from 2005 to 2007, when she resigned her postal service to get the managing director of the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis. Brougher, the deputy director and chief curator of the museum, has served as the museum'southward acting director since December 2007. Brougher held several curatorial positions nether Koshalek'southward direction at MOCA.

Almost the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is one of the earth'south leading museums of international modern and contemporary art. Located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Hirshhorn is one of nineteen Smithsonian Institution museums. The museum opened Oct. 1, 1974, every bit a issue of the efforts and generosity of American entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph H. Hirshhorn (1899-1981), who donated his collection to the Smithsonian Institution in 1966. Designed past architect Gordon Bunshaft, the museum's elevated drum-shaped building has sixty,000 square anxiety of exhibition infinite inside and nearly four acres outside in its two-level Sculpture Garden and plaza. This welcoming, contemplative environment is designed to encourage visitors to connect with fine art in their ain means.

The museum has lx staff members, and its financial year 2008 budget was $11 one thousand thousand. The museum's collection of 11,500 objects represents pieces by leading artists from the late 19th century to the nowadays day and includes paintings, sculpture, mixed-media pieces, photography, works on newspaper, video and film. The Hirshhorn has one of the most comprehensive collections of modern sculpture in the world, with many examples on view indoors and in the Sculpture Garden. Two distinctive series-"Directions," which explores new work past emerging and established artists, and the Black Box infinite, which presents contempo film and video works by a diverse range of emerging international artists- are examples of the Hirshhorn's delivery to bringing the newest and best in contemporary art to the public.

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Source: https://hirshhorn.si.edu/explore/richard-koshalek-named-director-of-the-smithsonians-hirshhorn-museum-and-sculpture-garden/

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