Little-Known Curator Lands Top MOCA Post

Jeremy Strick, curator of 20th century painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, has been appointed director of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art. The announcement, made Monday after a meeting of the museum’s board of trustees, is being viewed as a surprising move because it catapults a little-known curator into the top administrative position at one of the nation’s highest-profile art institutions.

Strick’s appointment, effective July 1, ends a yearlong search for a successor to Richard Koshalek, who in 1980 joined the then-fledgling museum as deputy director, became director two years later and has guided the museum to maturity. When Koshalek arrived in Los Angeles, the museum had $50,000 in the bank, a tiny staff and no collection. Now the museum operates on a $10-million annual budget with a $50-million endowment and a staff of 130; attracts about 450,000 visitors a year; organizes exhibitions that travel all over the world, and maintains a 4,000-piece collection of postwar art. Koshalek announced his resignation in February 1998, saying he would stay on until summer of 1999.

Strick--a 43-year-old native of Los Angeles who has been at the Art Institute since 1996 and has held curatorial posts at the St. Louis Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., said he is excited about joining an institution that he has observed since its inception.

“I am very impressed with the work that has gone on at MOCA and by the quality of the staff and their achievements, so the idea of being part of that and making a contribution is very exciting to me,” he said Monday.

“Los Angeles has had a distinguished art tradition, but in the last 20 years it has become one of the great world centers and a place people look to for new ideas. MOCA has been a part of that, so this is a place where a contribution can be made.”

David Laventhol, a museum trustee and head of the museum’s search committee, said the committee considered about 50 candidates and interviewed seven. “MOCA is a gem, so it’s an opportunity that a lot of people would like to have, but it isn’t a gem for everybody. The search was a question of matching up the institution to the person.” Knowing Los Angeles wasn’t a necessary qualification, “but it’s a big plus,” said Laventhol, who is also consulting editor of Times Mirror, parent company of The Times.

Although museum officials were circumspect during the yearlong search, several names of candidates had circulated in art circles. These included Steven Lavine, president of California Institute of the Arts--who confirmed Monday that he talked to the committee but said he was never offered the position--and Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, as well as John R. Lane, former director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art who was recently named director of the Dallas Museum of Art.

Everyone contacted expressed surprise when told of Strick’s appointment; he had not been discussed as a candidate, and many observers who spoke anonymously questioned his lack of administrative experience and national stature. Nevertheless, those who know him reacted positively to the news.

“Jeremy Strick brings extraordinary experience in a wide range of 19th and 20th century art to MOCA. At MOCA he will have an opportunity to focus his energy on contemporary art, and we look forward to welcoming him to town,” said Stephanie Barron, senior curator of 20th century art and vice president of education and public programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Ann Philbin, director of the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum and Cultural Center, said “it bodes well that MOCA selected a curator as its director. Jeremy Strick is an admired colleague with a keen eye, and I look forward to possible collaborations between our institutions.”

Marla Prather, head of the department of 20th century art at the National Gallery of Art, also praised him. “Having worked very closely with Jeremy, I consider him to be one of my most valued colleagues in the field. Not only is he exceptionally bright, with very good instincts about art, he is also a genuinely decent, lovely human being. He is highly regarded and well liked by all his colleagues across the board,” she said.

Gil Friesen, president of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s board of trustees, said Strick’s appointment is the beginning of a new era at the museum. “With Richard we had a fantastic phase, which is more than you can really hope for. The combination of contemporary art and the museum and city and Jeremy make for a tremendously dynamic force for the future, in building the audience and the collection, and taking full advantage of our two great facilities,” he said, referring to the museum’s spaces on Bunker Hill and in Little Tokyo. The board voted unanimously to endorse the committee’s decision, he said.