James Cuno Appointed Director of London’s Courtauld Institute of Art

Harvard University Art Museums Director Ends 11-Year Tenure with Distinction

CAMBRIDGE, MA (June 11, 2002) — Harvard University President Lawrence Summers announced today that James Cuno, Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Director of the Harvard University Art Museums, has been appointed director of the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Summers went on to say, "Since my arrival here a year ago, I have come to know Jim Cuno as an eminent curator and an institutional leader of skill and intelligence. I have admired his vision and his deep commitment to one of Harvard’s most remarkable resources. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with him. Harvard will miss him deeply."

Professor Cuno said: "I very much look forward to the challenges that lie ahead. The chance to work with new colleagues in charting the future course for the Courtauld as an independent College of the University of London is very exciting. I will miss my colleagues and the collections of the Art Museums and I am deeply indebted to their friendship and professionalism. This was by no means an easy decision but the directorship of the Courtauld was an opportunity I could not pass up."

Nicholas Ferguson, Chairman of the new Board of Governors of the Courtauld Institute of Art, said: "We are delighted that James Cuno has accepted this post. He is ideally suited to take the Courtauld forward to meet the challenges of its new status as an independent College as well as further strengthening its position in the world of art history."

James Cuno has served as Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums and Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard since 1991. Under his directorship, the Harvard University Art Museums have doubled in staff size and budget and have organized numerous national and international touring exhibitions including, among many others Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings (2001), "You Look Beautiful Like That": The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé (2001), Latin American Geometric Abstraction: Selections from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (2001), Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern Times (2000), Ellsworth Kelly: The Early Drawings, 1948-1955 (with the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 1999), Brice Marden Work Books (with Kunstmuseum Winterthur and Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, 1998), Fuseli to Menzel: Drawings and Watercolors in the Age of Goethe (1998), Gods, Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah (with Asia Society, 1997), Tiepolo and His Circle: Drawings in American Collections (with Pierpont Morgan Library, 1996), The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections (1996), Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400 (1995), and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection (1992)

Major acquisitions to the Art Museums’ collections under his directorship include the Maida and George Abrams collection of 17th-century Dutch Drawings; the Stuart Cary Welch collection of Indian and Islamic paintings and drawings; the Henderson Collection of Korean Ceramics; the Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art; the Lois Orswell Collection of modern painting, sculpture, and drawings; the world’s largest collections of multiples by the post-war German artist, Joseph Beuys; and important paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian, Georg Baselitz, and Agnes Martin; sculptures by David Smith, Ellsworth Kelly and Kiki Smith; and drawings by Brice Marden, Jasper Johns, Sol Lewitt and Richard Serra.

In addition, the Art Museums successfully concluded their largest capital campaign ever, raising $55 million, or 50% over an original goal of $37 million. This resulted in endowed curatorships in Ancient Art, Chinese Art, Islamic and Later Indian Art, Modern Art, and Photographs, and in, among other things, the renovation and expansion of the Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Recently founded is a Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art and the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors. At present the Art Museums are working with the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano on a renovation of the Fogg Art Museum and a master plan for the Art Museums.

Cuno will take up his new post on January 6, 2003. At President Summers’ request, Harvard University Provost Steven Hyman will begin a search for a successor during the summer and fall of 2002.

About the Courtauld Institute of Art
Founded in 1932 and housed since 1989 in Somerset House, one of the grandest and most famous neo-classical buildings in London, the Courtauld Institute of Art is one of the world’s leading centers for teaching and research in the history and conservation of Western art. Its galleries, originally designed to house the Royal Academy and other learned institutions, now display the Institute’s world-renowned collection of paintings and drawings from the Samuel Courtauld, Gambier-Parry, Lee, Princes Gate, and other collections. The Institute also includes the Sir Robert Witt and Lord Conway photographic libraries comprising almost 2 million photographs of works of art by over 75,000 artists and over 1 million photographs and images of architecture, sculpture, and medieval painting, respectively; as well as a library of almost 150,000 volumes.

The Courtauld has a teaching staff of 30 who, between them, cover the arts and architecture of the Western world from antiquity to the present day, as well as the conservation of easel and wall paintings. Some 400 students are currently pursuing degrees at the Courtauld; approximately one-third are undergraduates, one-third are taking postgraduate courses, and one-third are engaged in research at the PhD level. In 2001, the Courtauld received the highest ranking of all art history faculties in the Research Assessment Exercise carried out by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. From August 1, 2002, the Courtauld Institute of Art will become an independent College of the University of London subject to the final approval of the Council in July.

About the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums are one of the world’s leading arts institutions, with the Arthur M. Sackler, Busch-Reisinger, and Fogg art museums, the Straus Center for Conservation, and the U.S. headquarters for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, an excavation project in western Turkey.

The Harvard University Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. As an integral part of the Harvard community, the three art museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs.

For more than a century, the Harvard University Art Museums have been the nation’s premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and are renowned for their role in the development of the discipline of art history in this country.

Location and Hours
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located at 32 Quincy Street in Cambridge. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located next door at 485 Broadway. Each Museum is a short walk from the Harvard Square MBTA station.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 1 – 5 p.m.; the Museums are closed on national holidays. Admission is $5; $4 for seniors; $3 for students; and free for those under 18 years of age. The Museums are free to everyone all day on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. until noon. The Harvard University Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. More detailed information is available at 617-495-9400 or on the Internet at www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.