Mike Boehm adds to Josh Baer’s rumor from yesterday that a New York gallery owner might be the choice for the director of LA MoCA:
L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art is poised to name its new director Monday morning, and one of the names circulating through the art world is Jeffrey Deitch, a high-flying New York art dealer who, if chosen, would be a radical break from the usual museum-world pattern.
MOCA’s key financial backer, Eli Broad, will present the new director along with the museum’s co-chairs, Maria Bell and David Johnson, and city Councilwoman Jan Perry, the museum announced today.American museum directors typically come from within the curatorial, academic or other nonprofit ranks. No major art museum in the United States is directed by a former owner of a commercial art gallery.
Deitch, who began working in a SoHo art gallery in the mid-1970s, opened Deitch Projects, a commercial space, in 1996. He also serves as corporate art consultant to the international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and several other corporations.
MoCA Contender Might Be an Unorthodox Choice (Culture Vulture)