The curator spoke out against the postponement of a Philip Guston exhibition
Mark Godfrey is leaving London’s Tate Modern, where he works as senior curator. Godfrey posted on Instagram that he was in the final weeks in the role, and shared an image of Joan Snyder’s 1971 Dark Stroke Hope, a recent acquisition for the institution. ‘Looking forward to seeing it on display one day,’ he wrote.
Godfrey is departing through the gallery’s voluntary layoff scheme, part of the institution’s COVID-19-related downsizing. Godfrey ‘will leave behind an outstanding legacy of exhibitions, displays, and acquisitions,’ a spokesperson for Tate said.
The departure follows a troubled relationship between the curator and gallery following a much-criticized postponement of a major Philip Guston retrospective – an institutional decision motivated by concerns over the artist’s Ku Klux Klan paintings. Tate suspended Godfrey last year after he publicly criticized the postponement.
Godfrey, who had been working on the exhibition, described the postponement as ‘extremely patronising to viewers, who are assumed not to be able to appreciate the nuance and politics of the artist’s works.’
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