Anne Wilkes Tucker, director of MFAH Gary Tinterow, and Malcolm Daniel. Photo: F. Carter Smith
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, announced today that Anne Wilkes Tucker, the founding curator of the department of photography, will retire from her position in June 2015. The museum has appointed Malcolm Daniel, curator at NewYork’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, as her successor. Daniel will step in as curator in charge of the department of photography and curator of special projects on Dec. 9, working with Tucker through June.
Tucker’s retirement will come after 39 years at the museum. Her achievements include expanding the museum’s photography holdings from 141 images to over 29,000 from all seven continents, featuring some 4,000 artists. Among the more than 40 exhibitions Tucker has organized or co-organized is the currently touring “WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath”,which will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum Nov. 8, 2013-Feb. 2, 2014. The show’s exhibition catalogue recently won the 2013 Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for best photography book. Tucker, who was named America’s best curator by TIME magazine in 2001, said in a press release that she has been contemplating retirement for several years, and “felt the moment was right with the conclusion of the 10-year war-photography project.”
While Tucker’s acquisitions have primarily focused on the 20th and 21st centuries, Daniel’s expertise lies in 19th-century photography. He has acquired some 20,000 photographs and curated or co-curated 25 exhibitions during his 23 years at the Met. Daniel said in a press release that he is “thrilled to be joining the extraordinary department that Anne Tucker has led so brilliantly since its founding. . . . I look forward to building on that foundation as we further enrich the collection and develop exhibitions that tell the story of photography from its origins to the present day.”
