I’ve been holding my tongue for a few days, but today I can give you the news of Richard Aste, the European paintings curator at the Brooklyn Museum. Aste took the museum’s buyout offer–it’s shrinking, as is the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.
But now comes official word that Aste will become director of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.
Interestingly, the first quote in the McNay press release comes from the Anne Pasternak, the director of the Brooklyn Museum, which–I suppose–shows that he didn’t leave for negative reasons:
Over the past six years, Rich rose to be one of the most treasured curators at the Brooklyn Museum. With a focus on Latin American art, he brought insightful exhibitions to vast publics while expanding the Museum’s reach and scope to increasingly diverse audiences.
Among his exhibitions in Brooklyn were Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898 and Impressionism and the Caribbean: Francisco Oller and His Transatlantic World.
From Sarah Harte, president of the board of trustees at the McNay, came this:
Rich exemplifies everything we were looking for in our next director: a collaborative leadership style, intellectual curiosity, and a deep knowledge of the arts. With his broad international perspective and culturally varied background, he is poised to build, strengthen, and diversify relationships between the McNay and the community of San Antonio.We are confident he will take the McNay to the next level.
Those who know Aste, including me, would agree.
Here’s his bio.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the McNay