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New York, NY, March 23, 2012—The Morgan
Library & Museum announced today the appointment of Joel
Smith as the first curator of photography in the
institution's history. Currently curator of photography at
Princeton University Art Museum, Mr. Smith will begin his
work at the Morgan in September, and will focus his
attention on building the collection and organizing related
exhibitions and educational programs.
The Morgan since its earliest years has had a small
collection of photographs, including a few works acquired by
Pierpont Morgan in the early twentieth century. Since 1924,
when the Morgan became a public institution, further
examples have regularly entered the collection as gifts and,
less often, by purchase. The Morgan's holdings currently
number several thousand photographs, ranging from the work
of amateur or unknown photographers to vintage prints by
major masters.
Mr. Smith was named the Peter C. Bunnell Curator of
Photography at Princeton in 2011. Since arriving there in
2005, he has curated over a dozen exhibitions, including
Saul Steinberg: Illuminations, a traveling exhibition that
opened in 2006 at the Morgan; Beloved Daughters: Photographs
by Fazal Sheikh (2007); Pictures of Pictures (2010); and The
Life and Death of Buildings (2011).
"We are delighted that Joel will join our curatorial team at
the Morgan, and we are extraordinarily excited about taking
a more significant role in the study and exhibition of
photography," said William M. Griswold, director of the
Morgan. "As an institution, the Morgan is committed to
identifying ways to enhance its holdings of art, literature,
and music. In 2006, we named our first curator of modern and
contemporary drawings. Joel's appointment is a further
example of our efforts to build a collection that reflects
the whole history of works on paper. I very much look
forward to working with him in this important area."
In 2007, the Morgan acquired sixty-seven photographs by
Irving Penn portraying notable artists and writers,
including Edward Albee, George Balanchine, Alberto
Giacometti, and Barnett Newman. The following year, the
Morgan purchased fourteen images by Diane Arbus, including
portraits of Marcel Duchamp, Agnes Martin, Norman Mailer,
Susan Sontag, and Frank Stella. Morgan Trustee Richard L.
Menschel, who through the Charina Endowment Fund has
established the endowment that will support the new
position, played a crucial role in securing these important
works.
Mr. Smith received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2001. From
1999 to 2005, he was Fisher Curator at the Frances Loeb Art
Center at Vassar College. Among his books are Edward
Steichen: The Early Years, Steinberg at the New Yorker, and
The Life and Death of Buildings: On Photography and Time.
"It is an honor and a pleasure to begin shaping a greater
role for photography at the Morgan and to make its
collection better known to the public," Mr. Smith said. "The
depth, intelligence, and singularity of the Morgan's
holdings in many allied fields—visual art, drama,
literature, science, music, the history of the page and of
the book—present an opportunity, and even the need, to tell
photography's life story differently here from anywhere
else."
"Since 1839, the camera has played a part in redefining
every facet of life. Emphasizing photography's deep
involvement in the modern world, and in the life of the
mind, is a logical expansion of the integrated view of human
endeavor that one experiences at the Morgan. That will be a
consistent keynote, whether the focus of a given show is on
an artist, an idea, or a format, such as the photographic
book. I look forward to working with my curatorial
colleagues, whose work in their respective fields is of the
highest quality."
Many, but not all, of the photographs already at the Morgan
portray figures whose work is represented in the museum's
core holdings of drawings, letters, manuscripts, books, and
music. The Morgan's collection includes rare, early
daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe (Samuel Masury and S.W.
Hartshorn) and Washington Irving (studio of Mathew Brady).
It owns a copy of William Henry Fox Talbot's Pencil of
Nature and 342 lantern slides by Edward S. Curtis, which it
acquired as a consequence of Pierpont Morgan's patronage of
the artist. There are also albums of photographs that record
the lives and travels of Morgan family members, and three
albums by Fernand Lochard documenting the contents of
Edouard Manet's studio at the time of his death.
Historically, photographs have been kept with the
collections of several different Morgan departments: Printed
Books and Bindings, Literary and Historical Manuscripts,
Music Manuscripts and Printed Music, and Drawings and
Prints. Although they are routinely incorporated in
exhibitions of works in other media, over the years, the
Morgan also has mounted a number of exhibitions solely on
photography, including Edward S. Curtis and Other Observers
of the North American Indian (1971), Fox Talbot and the
Earliest Photographs, 1833-1845 (1979), The Golden Age of
British Photography (1985-86), Edward Curtis and "The North
American Indian" (1988), and Close Encounters: Irving Penn
Portraits of Artists and Writers (2008).
The Morgan Library & Museum
The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of
financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors
and cultural benefactors in the United States. Today, more
than a century after its founding in 1906, the Morgan serves
as a museum, independent research library, musical venue,
architectural landmark, and historic site. In October 2010,
the Morgan completed the first-ever restoration of its
original McKim building, Pierpont Morgan’s private library,
and the core of the institution. In tandem with the 2006
expansion project by architect Renzo Piano, the Morgan now
provides visitors unprecedented access to its world-renowned
collections of drawings, literary and historical
manuscripts, musical scores, medieval and Renaissance
manuscripts, printed books, and ancient Near Eastern seals
and tablets.
General Information
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016-3405
212.685.0008
www.themorgan.org
Hours
Tuesday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; extended Friday
hours, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Mondays, Thanksgiving Day,
Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. The Morgan closes at 4
p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
Admission
$15 for adults; $10 for students, seniors (65 and over), and
children (under 16); free to Members and children 12 and
under accompanied by an adult. Admission is free on Fridays
from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is not required to visit the
Morgan Shop.
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