Adam D. Weinberg is an art museumcurator.[1] He was the Alice Pratt Brown Director of theWhitney Museum of American Art for 20 years, from October 1, 2003 to October 31, 2023.[2][3]
He holds a BA fromBrandeis University[4] and amaster's degree from theVisual Studies Workshop, theState University of New York at Buffalo.
Adam D. Weinberg has been a prominent figure in the arts since the 1980s, when he started his career at theWalker Art Center in Minneapolis as Director of Education and Assistant Curator. He joined the Whitney in 1989, initially as Director of itsEquitable Center Branch at 52nd and Seventh Avenue. After three years as theartistic and program director of the American Center France in Paris, he returned to the Whitney in 1993 as Curator of the Permanent Collection and was elevated to Senior Curator in 1998. He served as the Mary Stripp and R. Crosby Kemper Director of theAddison Gallery of American Art atPhillips Academy, Andover from 1999 until 2003 until he was appointed as the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney in October 2003. He stepped down from the role after 20 years in October 2023 and was succeeded byScott Rothkopf.[5]
During Weinberg's career he has curated numerous exhibitions on artists such asEdward Hopper,Richard Pousette-Dart,Arshile Gorky,Sol LeWitt,Isamu Noguchi,Alex Katz,Robert Mangold, andFrank Stella. He has also curated thematic and collection-based exhibitions among them Vanishing Presence; On the Line: The New Color photojournalism and the series Views from Abroad: European Perspectives on American Art; In a Classical Vein: Works from the Whitney Permanent Collection and Ideas and Objects; Selected Drawings and Sculptures from the Whitney Collection. He has organized numerous public projects with artists such asChristian Boltanski,Mark Dion,Nam June Paik,Laurie Simmons,Lorna Simpson,Jessica Stockholder andNari Ward.
Weinberg has authored numerous catalogues and essays on artists ranging fromMartin Puryear,Richard Artschwager andJack Whitten toSol LeWitt,Richard Tuttle, Robert Adams andUrsula von Rydingsvard, lectured widely, and been a grant panelist for federal, state, city, and private foundations as well as international governmental and private organizations.
Under his directorship, the Whitney presented over 300 exhibitions including nine editions of theWhitney Biennial and large-scale installations of the permanent collection, including the inaugural exhibition in the Downtown Whitney, America is Hard to See. Major Whitney-organized exhibitions explored the works of dozens of artists—senior (such asFrank Stella,Carmen Herrera, andLawrence Weiner), mid-career (such asJulie Mehretu,Roni Horn, andLorna Simpson), and historic (such asGordon Matta-Clark,Georgia O'Keeffe, andEdward Hopper).
In 2015, the Museum opened its new 220,000-square-foot building designed byRenzo Piano in New York's Meatpacking District, doubling the size of its exhibition space as well as providing state-of-the-art theater, education and conservation facilities. Since that time, the Whitney has increased its annual attendance from 400,000 to 1.2 million (pre-pandemic), expanded its award-winning educational programs, and dramatically enlarged its performance program. Since 2015, the Museum under Weinberg's leadership increased its collection endowment more than ten-fold and brought in nearly 4,000 works in all media by a diversity of practitioners into the permanent collection includingCarmen Herrera,Norman Lewis,Archibald Motley, and a major collection of works byRoy Lichtenstein.
Under his direction, the Whitney's commitment to living artists has been paramount with an expansion of its emerging artist exhibitions and programs as well as the introduction of the inaugural, comprehensive artist payment program (including the first museum to introduce honoraria for artists displaying works in the collection). The Museum also reaffirmed the central importance of its fifty-plus year Independent Study Program through the establishment of a permanent home for the Program at the Roy Lichtenstein Studio—a gift ofDorothy Lichtenstein—and its first artist-in-residence apartment and studio which has been added to the Lichtenstein Studio. Weinberg has also been recognized for his interviews with leading artists of our generation. Among them areJohn Baldessari,Dawoud Bey,Christian Boltanski,Alex Katz,Jeff Koons,Glenn Ligon,Julie Mehretu,Jason Moran,Elizabeth Murray,Claes Oldenburg,Catherine Opie,James Rosenquist,Martha Rosler,Susan Rothenberg,Ed Ruscha,Frank Stella,Hiroshi Sugimoto,Sarah Sze,Bill Viola,Kara Walker, andLawrence Weiner.
As "the artist's museum," a site for art presented in "real time," the Whitney has historically been a platform for dialogue and controversy. Weinberg's tenure has been no exception. "It's not that we court controversy. But to believe in the work of the present is to believe there are alternative ways of seeing the world—and that's a radical act, because it's saying the status quo is not the only way things can be."[6] Most controversies focus on the political/social aspects related to the artworks and artist representation. In 2019 the Whitney faced criticism and protest for including, what was thought to be by many, a racially-insensitive painting ofEmmett Till by artistDana Schutz in its 2017 Biennial. Other controversies included protests from staff and the public in 2018 over what were considered the unethical business interests of one of the Whitney's Trustees,Warren Kanders. The protests led to Kanders’ resignation from the Board.[7] In 2021, he led the realization of Day's End, the permanent, public sculpture by artistDavid Hammons on theHudson River waterfront.
As of mid-2022, Weinberg serves as a board member ofStorm King Art Center; theAmerican Academy in Rome, theTerra Foundation for American Art, theStar of Hope Foundation and has been a past board member of theAmerican Federation of Arts,Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,Colby College Art Museum, theTang Museum atSkidmore College and theWilliamstown Art Conservation Center. He is a member of theAdvisory Committee for the Archives of American Art, theScientific Committees of the Sebançi Museum inIstanbul andThe Art Mill Museum inDoha and a member of the director selection commission of theMADRE Museum inNaple. He served as the Chair of the Visiting Committee for theHarvard University Art Museum, a member of the Art Committee ofMadison Square Park Conservancy and as a member of the Committee of Selection ofThe Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
Weinberg holds a BA fromBrandeis University and an MFA from theVisual Studies Workshop,SUNY Buffalo. He has received honorary PhDs fromColby College,Hamilton College and thePratt Institute. He is a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received numerous awards including the Merit Award from theAmerican Institute of Architects, theRudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City fromNew York University, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2015, he was awarded the Insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.
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