by Jon Lackman | 21 May 2007 | Americas, Conferences, Museums
Has anyone written about the phenomenon of art scholars and curators who also collect? According to Princeton University, John Wilmerding “revealed May 4 at a reception and dinner in honor of his retirement that he is the previously anonymous donor of a major gift of Pop art to the Princeton University Art Museum.” Also, “a gift of $1 million, along with a challenge grant of $750,000, has been made for a new endowed museum curatorship,” in his name, “to publish the collection, carrying on the work begun by Wilmerding and Laura Giles.” “In 2004, Wilmerding donated a significant collection of 51 paintings and drawings dating from the mid- to late-19th century by such artists as Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Martin Johnson Heade and George Caleb Bingham to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.” A symposium in his honor May 5 drew Rachel Z. DeLue, Michael Gaudio, Franklin Kelly, H. Daniel Peck, Hal Foster, Mark Stevens, Cecile Whiting, Jennifer Roberts, Hendrik Hartog, and Michael Kammen.
