Richard Martin (curator)

Richard Martin (1947 – 1999) was a scholar, lecturer, critic and curator, and a leading art and fashion historian. At the time of his death he was curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, creating many critically acclaimed exhibitions and contributing widely towards publications on the subject. After his death, an award in his name was set up to recognise creative, high quality and innovative costume exhibitions.

Richard Harrison Martin was born December 4, 1946, at Bryn Mawr, PA. He studied at Swarthmore College, graduating in 1967, and gained two master's degrees, both from Columbia University. As a lecturer, he held academic positions at the School of Visual Arts, New York University, Columbia, the Juilliard School and Parsons School of Design.

Richard Martin taught art history from 1973 at New York University, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and the School of Visual Arts. In 1980 he became involved with fashion exhibitions at FIT where he worked with Harold Koda and Laura Sinderbrand, the director of FIT's Design Laboratory (now the Museum at FIT). He served as the editor in chief of Arts Magazine before his 1991 appointment as executive director of the Shirley Goodman Resource Center, which was responsible for FIT's exhibitions and collections.

The exhibitions Martin and Koda put up at FIT, including The East Village, Fashion and Surrealism, Undercover Story, and Three Women: Madeleine Vionnet, Claire McCardell, Rei Kawakubo attracted a great deal of attention. In 1987 they were given a special award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Martin would later win another award from the Council in 1996 "for furthering fashion in art and culture." Koda, who worked closely with Martin on exhibitions until they parted company in 1997, later said:

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