DEBORAH WYE NAMED CHIEF CURATOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
May 9, 1996...... Glenn D. Lowry, Director of The Museum of Modern Art, announced
today the appointment of Deborah Wye as Chief Curator of the Department of
Prints and Illustrated Books, effective immediately. She succeeds Riva
Castleman, who headed the Department from 1976 until her retirement on August
31, 1995.
Mr. Lowry stated, "We are very pleased that Debby Wye will head the Department
of Prints and Illustrated Books in a new era of its distinguished history. As
Chief Curator, Ms. Wye will oversee the prints and illustrated books
collection, its acquisitions, and its exhibition and loan programs, in addition
to assuming administrative responsibilities for the Department." He continued,
"Debby has been on the curatorial staff of the Museum for seventeen years and
has organized several major exhibitions and written many important catalogues.
She is a respected scholar and curator with a strong interest in contemporary
work."
Ms. Wye first joined the Museum as Assistant Curator in 1979 and was appointed
Associate Curator in 1982; she has served as Curator in the Department since
1990. She has organized four major exhibitions at the Museum, beginning with
Louise Bourgeois, MoMA's first exhibition of this important sculptor, in 1982.
This retrospective was followed by Committed To Print: Social and Political
Themes in Recent American Printed Art in 1988, Antoni Tàpies in Print in
1992, and The Prints of Louise Bourgeois in 1994. Ms. Wye is currently working
on Thinking Print: Books to Billboards, 1980–95, an exhibition of 235 works by
150 artists which opens at the Museum on June 20, 1996. She is also
coorganizing Beyond Boundaries: Crosscurrents in European Vanguard Art,
1945–75, with curators from the Department of Drawings and the Department of
Painting and Sculpture; the exhibition opens in October 1997.
The American Association of Museums honored Ms. Wye with an Award of Merit for
the exhibition catalogue she wrote to accompany Antoni Tàpies in Print,
and the International Association of Art Critics (American Section) cited
Committed to Print as an outstanding exhibition of 1987–88.
Among other significant acquisitions, Ms. Wye was instrumental in securing
Louise Bourgeois' entire printed oeuvre—some 600 prints—as a gift for The
Museum of Modern Art in 1994. From 1990 until 1995, Ms. Wye coordinated all
fund-raising activities for the Drive for an Endowment for the Purchase of
Prints, which raised more than $1 million.
Ms. Wye has lectured widely and has served on the Board of Directors of the
Print Council of America. She has received two grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts: the first in 1978 to pursue her interest in the work of
Louise Bourgeois and the second in 1990 to study contemporary printmaking in
Europe. Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications including
The Print Collector's Newsletter and Print Quarterly.
Ms. Wye received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of
Massachusetts and her masters of arts from Hunter College. Prior to joining The
Museum of Modern Art, Ms. Wye was assistant to the curator in charge of the
Drawing Study Center, Department of Drawings, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard
University, and, prior to that, a gallery assistant at the firm of Lucien
Goldschmidt, Inc., New York.
For further information, contact Alexandra Partow, Assistant Director,
Department of Communications, 212/708–9756.
