Candace Jackson of the Wall Street Journal gets an early shot at talking to Jeffrey Deitch in his new capacity as director-designate of LA MOCA.
Here’s the part I’m interested in:
Asked about possible conflicts, Mr. Deitch, who has been in the art
business since the mid 1970s said, “there are too many long term
relationships to be completely restrictive. We will do what is
appropriate.”Ms. [Maria] Bell, the board co-chair who was involved in the search committee
process, said the terms of Mr. Deitch’s contract dictate that he has
until June to cease commercial activity in his galleries….Mr. Deitch says he’ll be spending part of the next few months ensuring
that the staff and artists he works with—some of whom receive
stipends and free housing—would have “a good transition.”
I think we need this fleshed out out a whole lot more. Interestingly, the most high-profile example I can think of in which a dealer became a museum director was in the Los Angeles area: Walter Hopps was a founder of LA’s legendary Ferus Gallery before his directorship stints
at three different museums—the Pasadena Art Museum; the Menil
Collection, Houston; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington. (He was also a
curator at what is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a
adjunct senior curator at the Guggenheim.)
Nevertheless, it’s common for museums to have a policy against including dealers and auctioneers on their boards, let alone in their director’s chairs.
There are some compelling reasons for that. (More later.)