Departing director of Walker finds new job in New York

When Kathy Halbreich announced her resignation as director of Walker Art Center last March, she said she was looking forward to at least "one more great professional love affair" in her career.

On Wednesday she was named to a new post as associate director at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For a native New York aesthete of Halbreich's temperament, MoMA -- the world's premiere repository of 20th century art -- is obviously that love.

In a MoMA statement, she recalled her lifelong affection for the place, starting with visits "on a near-weekly basis as a 12-year-old student at the Art Students League."

Halbreich will serve as director Glenn Lowry's No. 2, working to expand contemporary programs at the Manhattan museum and its Long Island affiliate, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, acquire 21st century art, organize shows and serve with Lowry as a museum advocate.

During her 16-year tenure as the Walker's first female director, Halbreich oversaw a $135.6 million expansion project and earned an international reputation as an outspoken champion of avant garde contemporary art.

Perhaps not coincidentally, she was in New York Wednesday for the opening at the Guggenheim Museum of a Richard Prince exhibition that is coming to the Walker in March. She departs Thursday for Istanbul, Turkey, with a group of Walker board members.

Describing himself as her longtime admirer, Lowry said he was thrilled that Halbreich was joining the staff. Perhaps to dampen speculation that she is Lowry's heir apparent, Wednesday's announcement stated that Lowry intends to remain "over the coming years."

While MoMA's preeminence in early- and mid-20th-century modernism is unchallenged, it has been criticized in recent decades for a rocky relationship to contemporary art and artists. Some have even dismissed it as a period museum stuck in the pre-1970s era.

Halbreich's arrival will probably change that dynamic, given her commitment to edgy, young international talent and multimedia artists. Her Walker exhibitions included a 1994 retrospective by Bruce Nauman, a 1995 show by Belgian film director Chantal Akerman and a four-year project involving artists from China, India, Japan, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa.

Before the Walker, Halbreich was founding curator of the department of contemporary art at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (1988-91) and director of the Albert and Vera List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1976-86).

She will leave the Walker on Nov. 1 and will start working at MoMA in February. Her successor at the Walker, starting Jan. 1, is Olga Viso, now director of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.

Mary Abbe • 612-673-4431

Mary Abbe • mabbe@startribune.com