Benedict Leca, a much-liked curator of European Art at Cincinnati Art Museum whose departure in 2012 to become chief curator at Hamilton, Ontario's, Art Gallery of Hamilton prompted protest, has moved again. It's a promotion. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment at Cincinnati was organizing Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman. Here are a few paragraphs from the press release from the Redwood Library & Athenaeum of Newport, R.I. It is especially notable for the fact the erudite Leca use the term dix-huitièmiste to describe himself in a quote — how many other museum directors would do that?
Edwin G. Fischer, M.D., President of the Board of Directors of the Redwood Library & Athenæum, announced the appointment of Benedict Leca, Ph.D., as its new Executive Director, effective January 15, 2015, following a competitive national search.
“This is tremendous news for the Redwood,” stated Dr. Fischer, “An expert in 18th-century art, history, and material culture, Benedict is uniquely qualified to move the Library into the national spotlight as a center of thought and culture. He has a wealth of experience and is extremely well-suited to lead this 268-year old cultural institution.”
As Executive Director, Leca will articulate and advance the Redwood’s historic mission as a hybrid cultural institution with “nothing in view but the good of mankind.” Building on the Redwood’s unique position as a catalyst for dialogues about education across periods and disciplines, Leca’s work will focus on fully realizing the opportunities inherent to the athenæum model through an expanded array of public programs, forums, and exhibitions—both on-site and on-line—that will foster networks of intellectual exchange locally, regionally, and around the world.
Prior to his current tenure at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, as Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs (2012-14), Leca was Curator of European Painting, Sculpture and Drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
He was the first Andrew Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the French Paintings department at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (2003-2007), and served on the staff of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (1999-2000). Mr. Leca also currently holds the position of Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History in the School of the Arts, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Mr. Leca has curated many important exhibitions: Charles-Nicolas Cochin: Draftsman of the Enlightenment (2003); Rembrandt: Three Faces of the Master (2008); Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman (2010—2011); Monet in Giverny: Landscapes of Reflection (2012); The Painter Pictured: French Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Portrait Photographs (2013); the current The World is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne, executed in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (2014-15), and the forthcoming Illuminations: Italian Baroque Masterworks in Canadian Collections to be held at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, in 2015.
(Thanks to Judith H. Dobrzynski's Real Clear Arts blog at http://www.artsjournal.com/
