Emilie E. S. Gordenker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 59–60) |
| Nationality | American-Dutch |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Occupation(s) | museum director, curator, art historian |
Emilie Elise Saskia Gordenker (born February 5, 1965 inPrinceton,New Jersey) is an American-Dutchart historian andmuseum director. She is currently the director of theVan Gogh Museum inAmsterdam, a position she has held since February 2020. Gordenker is known for her leadership in the international museum sector,[1] and her innovative approaches to art curation and museum direction.[2]
Gordenker graduated with a B.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University. She later pursued her PhD in Art History at theInstitute of Fine Arts,New York University, specializing in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art, with a focus on the representation of dress in portraits byAnthony van Dyck. Her dissertation,Van Dyck and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-Century Portraiture, was published in 2001.[3]
Previously, Gordenker worked at notable institutions like theMetropolitan Museum of Art and theFrick Collection inNew York City. She also taught atRutgers University,Vassar College, and the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts. These experiences helped shape her expertise in both academic and museum environments. She was later appointed curator at theNational Gallery of Scotland inEdinburgh after moving from New York to London.
In 2008, Gordenker was appointed Director of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, home to some of the world’s most renownedDutch Golden Age paintings, including works by Jan Steen, Vermeer, and Rembrandt.
During her 12-year tenure, she led a significant renovation and expansion of the museum, which was completed in 2014. This project doubled the museum’s space and modernized its facilities while maintaining the integrity of the historic 17th-century building.
Under her leadership, the Mauritshuis hosted a number of major exhibitions, including 'Vermeer and His Contemporaries from the Royal Collection' (2016) and 'Shifting Image: In Search of Johan Maurits' (2019), which explored the controversial colonial past of Johan Maurits, the museum’s namesake.[4][5]
In February 2020, Gordenker became director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, succeedingAxel Rüger. The Van Gogh Museum is one of the most visited museums in the world, boasting over 2.2 million visitors annually and holding the largest collection of Van Gogh’s works, including more than 200 paintings and 500 drawings.[6][7]
At the Van Gogh Museum, Gordenker has overseen several important exhibitions, including 'In the Picture', a collection of self-portraits and portraits by Van Gogh and other 19th-century artists, and 'Van Gogh’s Most Beautiful Letters'. She also continues to focus on expanding the museum’s reach and its engagement with visitors, particularly through innovative digital projects.[8]
Gordenker is the daughter of Prof. Dr. Leon Gordenker (1923-2020), a professor of political science atPrinceton University, and Belia Emilie Strootman (1928-1984). Her maternal grandmother, Emilie Strootman-Engelberts, remarried after the death of her husband to Dr. Jan Gerrit van Gelder, the former director of the Mauritshuis from 1945.[9]
In 2008, she married a son of former Dutch banker Wim Scherpenhuijsen Rom.[10] She currently lives in Amsterdam.
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