Kirk Varnedoe
| Kirk Varnedoe | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
John Kirk Train Varnedoe January 18, 1946 Savannah, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | August 14, 2003 (aged 57) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Art curator |
| Spouse(s) | Elyn Zimmerman |
John Kirk Train Varnedoe (January 18, 1946 – August 14, 2003) was an American art historian, the Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art from 1988 to 2001, Professor of the History of Art at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and Professor of Fine Arts at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.
Varnedoe was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, and attended Savannah Country Day School. He studied at St. Andrew's School and Williams College, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society. At Williams he began studying studio art, but soon switched to art history under the influence of Professor Lane Faison, and received his A.B. in 1967. He also played college football and, after graduating, returned to work as a coaching assistant and to lead art history discussion sections for a year.
In 1972 Varnedoe earned a Ph.D. at Stanford under Rodin scholar Albert Elsen, with whom he collaborated on an exhibition and catalog, The Drawings of Rodin (1971), about the profusion of drawings falsely attributed to Rodin. He married the artist Elyn Zimmerman, taught art history at Stanford for a year, then taught at Columbia University and at New York University Institute of Fine Arts. In 1987 he published a book about the French painter Gustave Caillebotte, which helped to initiate a revival of scholarly and public interest in that little-known Impressionist. A 1982 exhibition Varnedoe curated, "Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in Scandinavian Painting, 1880-1910" introduced American audiences to yet more unfamiliar artists.
...
Wikipedia