Two artworld sagas collide with the appointment of Philippe Vergne as the director of the Museu Serralves in Porto. The French curator earned columns inches after overseeing a turbulent period in the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’s recent history which came to ahead, last year, with the director’s contract not being renewed. In March Vergne had sacked the museum’s chief curator, Helen Molesworth citing ‘creative differences’, to much protest. Earlier, artist Mark Grotjahn had pulled out of being honoured at the museum’s annual gala, in response to criticism that the event historically lacked diversity in the names it lauded. Painter Lari Pittman, who had voiced concerns, resigned from the museum’s board. Photographer Catherine Opie, also a trustee, alleged that Vergne fired Molesworth for ‘undermining the museum.’ During a public lecture the curator had said ‘I don’t think there’s any way for MOCA to not be a white space. Not gonna happen. The DNA is too deep. We don’t have anyone of colour on our board. Let’s start right there.’
Yet the politics of the new job may prove no less tricky. Vergne takes the role at Serralves after previous artistic director, João Ribas, resigned in September. Robas left in protest that twenty works by Robert Mapplethorpe were allegedly removed from a retrospective of the American artist and the institution closed the show to children. Ribas said that he had not agreed to the move by the foundation, telling Publico “A museum cannot condition, separate, or delist access to works, to say what people can see or not.’ The photographs depicted scenes from New York’s S&M scene in the 1970s.
Vergne will move to Portugal after four years in Los Angeles.
27 February 2019
