The Morgan Library & Museum Appoints Claire Gilman as Acquavella Curator and Department Head, Modern and Contemporary Drawings
The Morgan Library & Museum announces the appointment of Claire Gilman, Ph.D, as Acquavella Curator and Department Head, Modern and Contemporary Drawings. This position oversees a collection of drawings that, spanning the twentieth century to the present, illuminates the diverse contributions made by artists working on paper to the history of modern and contemporary art. The department was established in 2005 and led until 2023 by Dr. Isabelle Dervaux, the inaugural Acquavella Curator and Department Head. The department has established a national and international reputation for its focused, scholarly, and innovative exhibitions, such as Dubuffet Drawings, 1935–1962 (2016); The Drawings of Al Taylor (2020); Georg Baselitz: Six Decades of Drawings (2022); and Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist’s Studio (2023)—as well as having assembled, through purchases and gifts, a remarkable collection of 20th- and 21st-century works on paper.
Dr. Gilman comes to the Morgan from the Drawing Center in New York, where she has held the position of Chief Curator since 2018, and where she has been a curator since 2010. In addition to a deep commitment to the expressive possibilities of drawing in an expanded field, her research focuses on championing historically overlooked art movements. She is an expert in Italian art of the 1960s, especially Arte Povera, and has recently expanded this focus to include other arts of the Eastern Mediterranean. Some recent exhibitions of note include shows on the drawings of Kahlil Gibran (2023), Huguette Caland (2022), and Terry Winters (2019), as well as the group shows Ways of Seeing: Three Takes on the Jack Shear Drawing Collection (2021), The Pencil is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists (2019, co-organized with The Drawing Center’s curatorial team) and For Opacity: Elijah Burgher, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Nathaniel Mary Quinn (2018).
Claire Gilman is co-author of Drawing in the Present Tense with Roger Malbert, published by Thames and Hudson in 2023, and has authored over forty exhibition catalogues. She has written for publications such as Art Journal, CAA Reviews, Frieze, and October, and has contributed essays to many art books both in the United States and internationally. Gilman holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in Art History from Columbia University.
“Claire Gilman brings a wealth of experience in the world of modern and contemporary drawings to the Morgan,” said Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Her research interests complement the strong holdings of European modernists in the Morgan’s Modern and Contemporary Department, and I look forward to seeing how her curatorial expertise, dedication, and inventiveness will enrich the Morgan’s mission to examine the creative process through works on paper in the modern and contemporary periods. Her deep engagement with the work of living artists will also further the Morgan’s mission significantly.”
“The Morgan Library is one of New York City’s treasures and indeed one of the world’s most important sites of learning,” said Claire Gilman. “I am thrilled to bring my passion for modern and contemporary drawing to this magnificent institution, with its unparalleled collection and its commitment to the most significant art and intellectual production from the ancient world to the present.”
