Ann Temkin

Ann Temkin
Name	Ann Temkin
Birth date	1959
Birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Occupation	Curator, museum director
Employer	Museum of Modern Art
Known for	Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture

Ann Temkin is an American curator and art historian who serves as the Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is noted for organizing influential exhibitions, acquiring major works, and shaping museum collections through scholarship and institutional leadership. Her career spans roles at leading institutions and collaborations with prominent artists, critics, and collectors.

Early life and education

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Temkin studied at the University of Pennsylvania where she engaged with programs connected to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and curricula influenced by scholars associated with Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University. She completed graduate study at Yale University with work informed by collections at the British Museum, National Gallery, London, and research models from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Her academic formation intersected with debates advanced by figures linked to the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Tate Modern.

Career

Temkin began her professional trajectory in curatorial and advisory positions connected to institutions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and regional museums including the Baltimore Museum of Art and Walker Art Center. She joined the Museum of Modern Art staff and rose to become Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, working alongside directors associated with the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her curatorial projects have intersected with artists represented by galleries like Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and institutions such as the Carnegie Museum of Art and National Gallery of Art. Temkin has organized exhibitions engaging with the legacies of artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Andy Warhol, and Gerhard Richter, and has acquired works by Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Cézanne, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeois, Kara Walker, Anselm Kiefer, Cindy Sherman, Marina Abramović, Yayoi Kusama, Cy Twombly, Ellsworth Kelly, Lucian Freud, Anish Kapoor, Brice Marden, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Chris Ofili, Tacita Dean, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, Jenny Holzer, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Helen Frankenthaler, Alex Katz, Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon, Giorgio Morandi, and Paul Klee. Her collaborations have included loans and exchanges with the National Gallery of Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Ludwig, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Fondation Beyeler, Pinakothek der Moderne, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Hermitage Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and The Frick Collection.

Personal life

Temkin's professional network encompasses collectors, patrons, and trustees associated with foundations such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Getty Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation of New York. She has engaged with advisory boards linked to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, New York University, and Smithsonian Institution. Her friendships and mentorships connect to curators and scholars from Yale University, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University.

Selected exhibitions and acquisitions

Temkin organized and contributed to exhibitions that involved loans from institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Rijksmuseum, National Gallery, London, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Notable acquisitions overseen under her curatorship include works by artists collected by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, National Gallery of Art, Tate Modern, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Fondation Beyeler, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and Rijksmuseum. She has mounted retrospectives, thematic surveys, and focused displays involving artists such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Louise Bourgeois, Kara Walker, Yayoi Kusama, Marina Abramović, Cindy Sherman, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter.

Publications and writings

Temkin has authored and contributed to catalogues and essays published in association with the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Publishing, Thames & Hudson, Yale University Press, Princeton University Press, Bloomsbury, Rizzoli, Skira, Phaidon Press, Hatje Cantz, MIT Press, University of California Press, University of Chicago Press, and Columbia University Press. Her writings have addressed artists and movements connected to Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Minimalism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art, Feminist Art, Postmodernism, and histories invoked by works held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and National Gallery of Art.

Awards and honors

Throughout her career Temkin has received recognition from professional organizations and institutions including honors associated with the American Alliance of Museums, International Council of Museums, College Art Association, National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation, Getty Foundation, and fellowships tied to Yale University, Harvard University, and the American Academy in Rome. She has been cited in profiles by major outlets referencing institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, and prominent galleries including Gagosian Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery.

Category:American art curators Category:People from Philadelphia