Catharina Manchanda, Ph.D., has been appointed curator of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Manchanda succeeds Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D., who was named director of the Kemper Art Museum last year. Her appointment comes at a critical time for the museum, which will open a new 65,000-square-foot facility, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, in the fall.
“Catharina is an innovative and dynamic scholar with a broad range of theoretical interests,” Eckmann said. “She also has a great deal of practical experience developing and implementing exhibitions in a variety of media for some of the nation’s most important institutions. I am thrilled that she is joining us.”
A specialist in modern and contemporary art, conceptual art, and photography, Manchanda has served in various curatorial capacities at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, both in New York, and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Busch-Reisinger Museum, part of the Harvard University Art Museums.
Manchanda says she looks forward to developing a range of challenging exhibitions and programs for the Kemper Art Museum. “Many art museums have a tendency to show contemporary art snapshot-like, with little historical context,” she explains. “I am particularly interested in connecting contemporary developments to a broader cultural and historical context because the dialogue between old and new — as well as our expanding theoretical vocabulary — offers fascinating insights.”
Manchanda holds bachelor’s degrees in art history, English and German from the University of Stuttgart in Germany (1990); and a master’s in art history from the University of Delaware (1993). In 2005, she earned a doctorate from the City University of New York (CUNY), writing her dissertation on the crucial role of photography in German art of the 1960s and early 1970s.
As a curatorial assistant at MoMA from 1999 to 2002, Manchanda worked with Robert Storr on Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting, among other projects, and previously conducted research for the Guggenheim’s Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective (1997). In Philadelphia, where she served as a curatorial fellow from 1993 to 1995, Manchanda organized Between War and Utopia: Prints and Drawings of the German Avant-Garde, 1905-1933. At Harvard, in 1992 and 1993, she co-curated The Sketchbooks of George Grosz with Peter Nisbet. It was the first time Grosz’ sketchbooks were exhibited as a group and the accompanying catalogue fully documented the artist’s prolific drawing activity.
Manchanda also has contributed articles to the catalogues Marja Kanervo (Oulu City Art Museum, 2004); Gerhard Richter: Editions 1965-2004 (Dallas Art Museum, 2004); and German Art Now (Saint Louis Art Museum, 2003), as well as to magazines and journals such as Obscuur and Transistor. Forthcoming essays will appear in History of Photography and on the Web site of the New York based organization Visual AIDS.
Her awards include a Samuel H. Kress Travel Fellowship, a Getty Library Research Grant, a German Academic Exchange Scholarship and fellowships from the CUNY Graduate Center and the University of Delaware.
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum boasts one of the finest university collections in the United States, including important paintings, sculptures, photographs and installations by 19th, 20th and 21st century American and European artists.
As a collecting institution within an academic setting, the Kemper Art Museum is dedicated to providing direct and meaningful interaction with works of art; to fostering interdisciplinary exchange; and to broadening knowledge about visual culture and its connections to contemporary life. The museum maintains a vital program of exhibitions, publications and accompanying events. Major thematic shows are drawn from institutions and private collections around the world, while the Contemporary Projects Series highlights nationally and internationally emerging artists.
The Kemper Art Museum’s acclaimed permanent collection dates back to 1881, making it the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi River. It includes key works by modern and contemporary artists — from Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollack to Christian Boltanski, Candida Hoefer and Olafur Eliasson — as well as significant antiquities and a large number of prints and drawings.