Kynaston Leigh Gerard McShine
author
Kynaston McShine (1935–2018) was a Trinidad-born curator who spent almost his entire career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He studied philosophy at Dartmouth College (B.A., 1958) and did graduate work at the University of Michigan and New York University. He joined MoMA's public information department in 1959 and became associate curator of painting and sculpture. He was Curator of Exhibitions from 1971 to 1984 and Senior Curator from 1984 to 2001. He was Acting Chief Curator from 2001 to 2003 and Chief Curator at Large from 2003 until he retired in 2008. He is often described as the first curator of color at a major American museum. He organized several influential exhibitions, including Primary Structures (Jewish Museum, 1966), Information (MoMA, 1970), Marcel Duchamp (1973), Joseph Cornell (1980), Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (1989), The Museum as Muse (1999), and Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul (2006). He edited the catalogue for the 1989 Warhol retrospective.[1,2,3]
- contemporary art
- Conceptual art
- Minimalism
- Pop art
- museum practice
Works by Kynaston Leigh Gerard McShine
- 1989 Andy Warhol: A Retrospective Edited by McShine, with essays by Robert Rosenblum, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh and others. Published for the MoMA exhibition of 6 February to 2 May 1989.
Exhibitions
- 1966 Primary Structures
- 1970 Information
- 1989 Andy Warhol: A Retrospective
- 1999 The Museum as Muse
Awards
- 2003 CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence