Tate Britain director heads to Lisbon to run Gulbenkian Museum

The director of Tate Britain, Penelope Curtis, is leaving London for Lisbon, to take charge of the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian. After a week of speculation in the Portuguese media, the Gulbenkian foundation confirmed Curtis's appointment today, 31 March, making her the first foreign director of the small but prestigious museum, which opened in 1969. Housing highlights of the 6,000-strong, collection amassed by the Turkish-born, British-educated and largely Paris-based Armenian oil magnate, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955), works on show range from his antiquities, Islamic art and Old Masters to René Lalique jewellery—purchased so long as they were “only the best” in the collector’s eyes. For example, Rubens’s portrait of his second wife, Helen Fourment, once belonged to Catherine the Great. Gulbenkian bought the painting from the Soviet government in 1930 when it was selling works from the State Hermitage Museum to raise foreign currency.

The Gulbenkian foundation’s trustees were seeking a director of international standing who can "work across the breadth of the collections". The job description also mentions “fostering collaboration with the Centre de Arte Moderna (Cam),” which has its own director, Isabel Carlos. In a statement, Curtis says: "I want to keep all that is good about the museum, which I admire deeply, while developing ways in which it can make more of its context and position, especially in relation to the neighbouring Modern art centre, and more widely.” The foundation's Modern art gallery, which is in the same parkland setting as the Gulbenkian Museum, has a collection of Modern and contemporary Portuguese, British and Armenian art. The Lisbon-based foundation has strong British ties, as well as French ones, with offices in London and Paris.

Curtis, who became director of Tate Britain in 2010, oversaw the £45m refurbishment of the gallery of historic and contemporary British art, which was completed in 2013 and greatly improved circulation routes and created new focal points and vistas. A chronological installation of the collection replaced displays that were often thematic. The combination of long-term chronological hang and smaller, changing displays has given the gallery variety without the jarring juxtapositions of works in different styles and from different eras that were the hallmark of Tate Britain when it was launched in 2000.

A few of Tate Britain’s recent exhibitions have aroused the ire of some critics, including the current show “Sculpture Victorious” (until 25 May) of mid- to late-19th century British sculpture. The criticism has verged on a vendetta, downplaying the merits of the presentation of the permanent collection and well-received temporary exhibitions, such as ones of Turner’s late works, Lowry’s cityscapes, and a survey of British folk art. The gallery’s annual attendance has hovered around the 1.4 million mark, compared with around 5 million who visit Tate Modern.

Curtis has co-organised the exhibition of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture, which is due open this summer (24 June-25 October).

She moved to Tate Britain from the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, where from 1994 until 2010 she organised a series of historical and contemporary sculpture exhibitions. In 1988, Curtis joined the new Tate Gallery in Liverpool as exhibitions curator.

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