Modern and Contemporary Art Department Records

To reflect the coming millenium, the Twentieth Century Art Department became known in the year 2000 as the department of Modern and Contemporary Art. The first exhibition mounted by the department that year, which was held March 25 to July 20, was "Celebrating the Eight: American Modernism from the Potamkin Collection."

Ann Temkin, who came to the museum in 1989 as Acting Curator of Twentieth Century Art, continued under the new department name as the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. She assumed the endowed curatorial position in 1990. Michael Taylor and Susan Rosenberg were Assistant Curators. When Temkin left the museum for a co-curatorial position at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the fall of 2003, Taylor was named the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art. The position of Curator of Contemporary Art remained vacant until 2006 when Carlos Basualdo joined the museum staff. In 2013, Contemporary Art became its own department. At the same time, Matthew Affron became the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art and the position was moved into the European Painting and Sculpture Department.