What Ever Happened to Max Anderson?

The former director of the Whitney Museum got snubbed in the “Acknowledgements” section of the catalogue for that museum’s current Picasso show, which gives credit to Adam Weinberg, in his capacities as former curator of the permanent collection and current director; David Ross, another former director; Leonard Lauder, chairman; and even Willard Holmes, Anderson’s deputy director.
But here Anderson is, interviewed by S.L. Berry for last Tuesday’s Indianapolis Star, in his latest incarnation as director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. (I came across this article via the excellent Indianapolis art blog, On the Cusp.)
So what’s Max up to? He’s about to commission works for the museum’s planned Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park. And always the irrepressible techie, he’s thinking of introducing “cell phone tours” (like the Walker Art Center’s Art on Call, which CultureGrrl recently experienced and which is now again being upgraded).
I have always felt that Anderson, during his New York sojourn, had smart ideas about museum management, but lacked the patience, humility and consensus-building skills to realize them without making enemies. Soon after the Oct. 23, 2002 publication of my laudatory WSJ profile of Anderson, “Hip Is Out as Director Transforms a Museum,” Max was out.
So I’m glad that he now has another shot at museum directing, giving him a platform from which he can issue salutary calls-to-action like this pithy quote in Tuesday’s Star, regarding the need for greater transparency in the governance of museums (including his own):
We’re not making weapons here. It’s not like we’ve got that much to hide.