MoMA appoints Lanka Tattersall as curator of drawings and prints
The Museum of Modern Art announces the appointment of Lanka Tattersall as curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints. Her responsibilities will include participating in the Museum’s acquisitions program, the installation of the collection galleries, and the development of special exhibitions and catalogues. Tattersall will join the Museum on July 1, 2019.
“Lanka brings with her both a fresh perspective about the art of the 20h century and a consummate insight into the generation of artists emerging today,” said Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints. “We look forward to her contributions to the Department of Drawings and Prints and the Museum at large.”
“I am thrilled to be returning to MoMA during this transformational moment in the Museum’s history,” said Tattersall. “With its unparalleled collection, MoMA is an extraordinary place from which to build and question our understandings of art in our time. I eagerly look forward to supporting artists by bringing their inventive, challenging, and generative works and ideas to the Museum. Moreover, I am elated to have the opportunity to collaborate with my colleagues, both within the Department of Drawings and Prints and across the institution, as MoMA looks toward the future.”
Tattersall is currently an associate curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she recently organized the exhibitions Cameron Rowland: D37 (2018), Real Worlds: Brassaï, Arbus, Goldin (2018), Lauren Halsey: we still here, there (2018), and Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun (2016), among others, and initiated the forthcoming survey of the work of Tala Madani. She spearheaded a number of important commissions and performances, including works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Rafa Esparza, Juliana Huxtable, and Patrick Staff. Tattersall also oversaw MOCA’s Emerging Art Fund acquisition group.
From 2010 to 2014, Tattersall was a curatorial assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, where she was an integral part of the curatorial and editorial teams for the touring retrospective and accompanying monograph Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010, organized by Kathy Halbreich, former Associate Director, MoMA; with Mark Godfrey, Curator of International Art, Tate Modern.
Tattersall edited the catalogue for Real Worlds: Brassaï, Arbus, Goldin (Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 2018), which includes interviews with Hilton Als, Maggie Nelson, and A.L. Steiner. Additionally, she has authored numerous essays and chapters in a range of publications and catalogues, including “c. 2016: around Zoe Leonard’s In the Wake” in Zoe Leonard: Survey ( The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2018); “Black Lives: Matter” in Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (Skira Rizzoli, 2016); “Corporate Cannibalism” in Kerstin Brätsch: Innovation ( Walther König, 2017); “Eight Days a Week” in Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 (The Museum of Modern Art, 2014); “Lanka Tattersall and Elaine Carberry in conversation with Thomas J. Lax” in Clifford Owens: Anthology (MoMA PS1, 2012); and “Mr. Kupka Among Verticals” and “The Color Grid” in Inventing Abstraction: 1910–1925 ( The Museum of Modern Art, 2012), among others. In addition, Tattersall has contributed frequently to various publications and journals, including Artforum, Art in America, and Texte zur Kunst.
Tattersall received a BA in the history of art and architecture from Wesleyan University; an MA in modern art and curatorial studies from Columbia University; and an AM in the history of art and architecture, modern art from Harvard University. She is currently a PhD candidate in the history of art and architecture, modern art at Harvard University.
