Philippe Vergne, director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York for the past five years, has been appointed as the new director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the LA Times has announced.
Vergne succeeds Jeffrey Deitch, appointed in 2010, whose background as an art dealer, without museum experience, made him a controversial choice, and resulted in artists John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie and Ed Ruscha resigning from MOCA’s board in 2012, as a criticism of Deitch’s policies.
All of the artists, who were also part of the committee involved in the search for a new director, have expressed their support for Vergne’s appointment.
16 January 2014
