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      Whitney Museum Names Chief Curator

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      Kim Conaty will steer exhibitions and the permanent collection, saying she will pay close attention to work by Latino and Indigenous artists.When Scott Rothkopf, the former deputy director and chief curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, stepped up as director of the New York institution last fall, he knew he would have to hire his replacement in the curatorial area. That role — one of the most influential in the contemporary art world — will be filled, effective next week, by Kim Conaty, the museum’s curator of drawings and prints since 2017. In her new position she will steer the institution’s permanent collection and acquisitions, as well as its exhibitions and conservation activities.Conaty has a reputation for creating shows that please critics and crowds alike. Her celebrated 2022-2023 exhibition “Edward Hopper’s New York” was among the best-attended in the museum’s history, while the 2023-2024 exhibition of drawings by Ruth Asawa that she organized with another curator was lauded as “revelatory” by The New York Times. As the chief curator, Conaty said she plans to focus on Latino and Indigenous artists, who remain underrepresented in the Whitney’s collection, and invest in emerging talent. But she also intends to slow down the pace of collecting. “Gifts are not free,” she said, referring to the cost of storing and preserving artworks. “We’re being extremely intentional about how we’re building the collection.”The Whitney has seen significant turnover in recent years. In addition to the departure of its longtime director, Adam D. Weinberg, two high-profile curators — David Breslin and Jane Panetta — decamped for roles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while its chief advancement officer, Pamela Besnard, retired last year. Rothkopf has made several new appointments, including promoting the curator Adrienne Edwards to a newly created leadership role as senior curator and associate director of curatorial programs. The chief financial officer I.D. Aruede was promoted to deputy director.A few weeks ago, Rothkopf had his first taste of controversy as director when the museum was seemingly caught unaware that the artist Demian DinéYazhi’ had slipped a “Free Palestine” message into a flickering neon sign in the Whitney Biennial, which opened on March 20.Asked about how he and Conaty plan to navigate such bumps in the future, he said, “In appointing Kim, it was important to think about someone who had the sensitivity interpersonally and the intellectual sophistication to help navigate the times that we’re in — I’m not going to be coy about that. These are key attributes for someone at a museum like the Whitney, which is so committed to the art and the ideas of our moment.” More

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      The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Rage and Grief

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      Käthe Kollwitz’s fierce belief in social justice and her indelible images made her one of Germany’s best printmakers. A dazzling MoMA show reminds us why.An artist friend texted me recently, asking how to contend with the anger and sadness she was feeling about the state of the world. I can think of no better balm than the Museum of Modern Art’s Käthe Kollwitz retrospective, the first ever at a New York museum that encompasses this German artist’s groundbreaking prints and drawings and her sculpture, posters and magazine illustrations.Once you’re there, go straight over to her series “Peasants’ War,” which she started in 1902, to find her own outlet for her burning desire for radical change. She was about 10 years into her already successful career when she made it, a remarkable feat given that she was a woman in a country that still didn’t allow women into art schools. In 1898, she had been nominated for a gold medal at the Greater Berlin Art Exhibition for her first major print cycle, “A Weavers’ Revolt” (1893-97), but did not receive it: The Prussian minister of culture thought her subject matter — a fictional uprising based on a contemporary play about an 1844 revolt, a watershed moment for many German socialists — too politically subversive, while Kaiser Wilhelm II himself objected to the idea of a woman garnering top prize.Born in 1867, Kollwitz was an avowed socialist whose career stretched from the 1890s to the 1940s, a period of tremendous social upheaval and two world wars. Though she was a member of the progressive Berlin Secession art movement, she kept a distance from the elite art world, living in a working-class Berlin neighborhood with her husband, a doctor who tended to the poor.Display of posters by Käthe Kollwitz at MoMA, left to right: “Vienna is dying! Save its Children,” 1920; “The Survivors,” 1923; “Help Russia,” 1921; “Never Again War!” from 1924; poster to legalize abortion, from 1923; “Release our Prisoners,” 1919. Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesWith “Peasants’ War,” Kollwitz again turned to the past to share her outrage at the injustices around her “which are never ending and as large as a mountain.” The seven-part series deals with the historical revolt that swept German-speaking countries of Central Europe in the 16th century, not as a transcription of historical events but as an imagined narrative showing the exploitation of farm workers (men treated no better than animals yoked to a plow, a woman in the aftermath of a rape by a landowner), their explosive response, and the chilling repression that followed. It is a story worthy of Charles Dickens or Émile Zola, told from a woman’s point of view.The largest print, “Charge,” focuses on the figure of “Black Anna,” reputed to be a catalyst of the violence, urging a mob of peasants to action. She is no “Liberty Leading the People.” Unlike Eugène Delacroix’s 1830 image of a beautiful and bare-breasted personification of French freedom, Kollwitz’s crone is shown from the back, her sinewy arms raised and hands clenched urgently, practically launching herself into the crowd.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Harvard Removes Binding of Human Skin From Book in Its Library

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      The decision to find a “respectful final disposition” for human remains used for a 19th-century book comes amid growing scrutiny of their presence in museum collections.Of the roughly 20 million books in Harvard University’s libraries, one has long exerted a unique dark fascination, not for its contents, but for the material it was reputedly bound in: human skin.For years, the volume — a 19th-century French treatise on the human soul — was brought out for show and tell, and sometimes, according to library lore, used to haze new employees. In 2014, the university drew jokey news coverage around the world with the announcement that it had used new technology to confirm that the binding was in fact human skin.But on Wednesday, after years of criticism and debate, the university announced that it had removed the binding and would be exploring options for “a final respectful disposition of these human remains.”“After careful study, stakeholder engagement, and consideration, Harvard Library and the Harvard Museum Collections Returns Committee concluded that the human remains used in the book’s binding no longer belong in the Harvard Library collections, due to the ethically fraught nature of the book’s origins and subsequent history,” the university said in a statement.Harvard also said that its own handling of the book, a copy of Arsène Houssaye’s “Des Destinées de L’Ame,” or “The Destiny of Souls,” had failed to live up to the “ethical standards” of care, and had sometimes used an inappropriately “sensationalistic, morbid and humorous tone” in publicizing it.The library apologized, saying that it had “further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      British Museum Sues Former Curator for Return of Stolen Items

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      The museum accuses Peter Higgs, a former keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities, of stealing or damaging at least 1,800 artifacts and selling many on eBay.A judge has ordered a former curator who the British Museum says stole hundred of artifacts to return any gems or jewelry from the institution that are in his possession.The museum claims that the former curator, Peter Higgs, who once ran the museum’s Greek and Roman antiquities department, stole or damaged over 1,800 artifacts from its collections and sold hundreds of those items on eBay, according to court documents.Officials also want Mr. Higgs to explain the whereabouts of other artifacts that they says the former curator sold online. The court documents state that Mr. Higgs disputes the accusations against him.At a High Court hearing in London, the presiding judge, Heather Williams, ordered Mr. Higgs to return any items within four weeks. Judge Williams also ordered PayPal, the online payments company, to disclose data relating to Mr. Higgs’s eBay accounts, including his transaction history.The missing museum items include engraved gems and jewelry, some of which are thousands of years old.On Tuesday, Mr. Higgs and his family did not respond to emails and social media messages from The Times. In court papers, the museum’s lawyers said the curator was “suffering from severe mental strain” and was “unable to respond effectively to the proceedings.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Met Museum Hires Its First Head of Provenance Research

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      Lucian Simmons is leaving Sotheby’s to lead the museum’s increased efforts to review its collection, which has recently returned looted artifacts, including dozens last year.As part of its more aggressive restitution investigation efforts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday announced that it had appointed a Sotheby’s executive to the newly created position of head of provenance research.Lucian Simmons will leave Sotheby’s, where he is vice chairman and worldwide head of the restitution department — and senior specialist for the Impressionist and Modern art department — to take on the role of coordinating research efforts across the museum, starting in May.Like museums all over the world, the Met has faced increased scrutiny from law enforcement officials, academics and the news media over the extent to which its collection of more than 1.5 million works includes looted artifacts. In recent years, for example, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has seized dozens of antiquities from the museum to return them to countries including Turkey, Egypt and Italy.In a telephone interview, Max Hollein, the museum’s director and chief executive, said the volume of materials an auction house must review gave Simmons the background necessary to take on a review of the Met’s encyclopedic collection.“He has a vast amount of experience understanding the level of research you need to apply and what timelines you need to set to get to a result,” Hollein said. “He probably had to deal with more issues at Sotheby’s than have many other institutions. You have to vet and scrutinize a huge number of objects. He’s someone who understands the theory but who also has a very practical attitude.”The Met last year announced a major new effort to review its holdings and policies with a view toward returning items it finds to have problematic histories.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Audience Snapshot: Four Years After Shutdown, a Mixed Recovery

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      Covid brought live performance to a halt. Now the audience for pop concerts and sporting events has roared back, while attendance on Broadway and at some major museums is still down.It was four years ago — on March 12, 2020 — that the coronavirus brought the curtain down on Broadway for what was initially supposed to be a monthlong shutdown, but which wound up lasting a year and a half.The pandemic brought live events and big gatherings to a halt, silencing orchestras, shutting museums and movie theaters and leaving sports teams playing to empty stadiums dotted with cardboard cutouts.Now, four years later, audiences are coming back, but the recovery has been uneven. Here is a snapshot of where things stand now:Broadway audiences are still down 17 percent from prepandemic levels.On Broadway, overall attendance is still down about 17 percent: 9.3 million seats have been filled in the current season as of March 3, down from 11.1 million at the same point in 2020. Box office grosses are down, too: Broadway shows have grossed $1.2 billion so far this season, 14 percent below the level in early March of 2020.Broadway has always had more flops than successes, and the post-pandemic period has been challenging for producers and investors, especially those involved in new musicals. Three pop productions that have opened since the pandemic — “Six,” about the wives of King Henry VIII, “MJ,” about Michael Jackson and “& Juliet,” which imagines an alternate history for Shakespeare’s tragic heroine — are ongoing hits, but far more musicals have flamed out. The industry is looking with some trepidation toward next month, when a large crop of new shows is set to open.Many nonprofit theaters around the country are also struggling — attracting fewer subscribers and producing fewer shows — and some have closed. One bright spot has been the touring Broadway market, which has been booming.— More

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      Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Names New Director

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      Elizabeth C. Babcock, the chief executive of Forever Balboa Park, will start this summer, after Nancy Yao’s withdrawal.Second time’s the charm?A year after the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington named its founding director — only to have the candidate withdraw before her official start date — the museum is trying again.It has chosen Elizabeth C. Babcock, the president and chief executive of Forever Balboa Park in San Diego, a nonprofit, as its new director. An anthropologist, museum educator and experienced administrator, Babcock will take over an institution that is still very much in formation. Although Congress approved plans for the museum in 2020, it is about a decade away from opening and does not have a site or a permanent collection yet.The museum’s original choice, Nancy Yao, resigned after an investigation into her handling of sexual harassment claims while leading the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan.After Yao’s appointment was announced, The Washington Post reported that her former workplace had settled three wrongful-termination lawsuits from employees who said they were fired in retaliation for reporting sexual misconduct. A Smithsonian spokeswoman said in 2023 that Yao had cited “family issues that require her attention” when she withdrew. (The Smithsonian used a different search firm this time around, according to the spokeswoman.)In an interview, Babcock said her priorities for the museum include expanding into digital media and supporting scholarly research. “We are going to listen and learn and work hard to ensure that the material we cover represents diverse communities across the country,” she said. She declined to specify whether the museum would include the work of transgender women, but said that “our museum will not shy away from discussing controversial topics.” She will begin her new role in June.Babcock has been the chief executive of Forever Balboa Park since 2022. Before that, she was dean of education at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and vice president of education and library collections at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.The American Women’s History Museum, which has been led by an interim director, Melanie A. Adams, since last summer, has a staff of 22, with six more to begin this year. Its annual operating budget is $7 million.Fund-raising will be a key part of Babcock’s agenda. The museum needs to raise half its total budget, which is expected to exceed the $540 million it cost to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016. (The other half of the budget comes from the federal government.) So far, it has amassed $65.5 million from donors.Babcock said that she intends to cultivate support from both women and men. “I think the power here for this museum is that it represents all of us — its intention is to be inclusive,” she said. More

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      A Mercer Labs Exhibit Uses Braille. Is It Accessible to All?

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      Roy Nachum designed the spectacle-filled Mercer Labs, which he touts as inclusive. But some advocates for blind people say his use of Braille can feel exploitative.While he was settling into Manhattan after moving from Israel in 2004, the 24-year-old artist Roy Nachum decided to contend with a second challenge: Inspired by his grandmother who had lost her sight, and in search of new inspiration for his artwork, he blindfolded himself. For the next 168 hours, he felt his way around his apartment in the East Village and used a cane to navigate to and from the nearby grocery store.That experience of being engulfed in the sounds and the chaos of a new city helped inspire the exhibits in his new immersive installation, Mercer Labs. It opened for previews in January at a 36,000-square-foot space in a sleek, Brutalist-style building at 21 Dey Street — the site of the former Century 21 department store.Nachum, whose artwork often incorporates Braille, became renowned for designing the Grammy-nominated cover for Rihanna’s album “Anti,” featuring a photo of Rihanna as a child wearing a gold crown embossed with Braille. He and the real estate developer Michael Cayre founded Mercer Labs with an ambitious mandate: to be a “place where the traditional hierarchies between art, architecture, design, technology and culture are dissolved,” and where “diversity and inclusion are celebrated,” according to a news release. The site is expected to open officially on March 28.One of Roy Nachum’s signature designs is this cover image for Rihanna’s 2016 album, “Anti,” which features a photo of her as a child wearing a gold crown embossed with Braille.The founders advertise Mercer Labs as a “museum of art and technology.” At the moment, it contains 14 exhibition spaces that use high-tech projectors, digital screens, LED lights and sound systems to display Nachum’s perception-teasing creations. Some exhibits feature Braille, tactile displays and immersive sounds intended for blind and low-vision visitors as well as sighted ones. In one of the rooms, attendees with vision can don sleeping masks and listen to a set of immersive sounds, the better to understand Nachum’s experiences from 2004 with touch and navigation. In still another space, guests stroll through a cave covered with pink hydrangeas that can be explored through touch.Nachum’s installations are on view at the moment, but when Mercer Labs officially opens in March, Nachum and Cayre intend for it to become a multipurpose site, with exhibitions by other artists, musicians and even actors; event spaces that can be rented for private use; and displays spotlighting fashion brands as well as up-and-coming New York companies. They would not elaborate on which specific brands or artists they have partnered with, citing nondisclosure agreements.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More