The Museum of Modern Art Appoints Beverly Adams as The New Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announces the appointment of Beverly Adams as the new Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art. The endowed curatorial position was created in 2006 in order to help shape the Museum’s collection and exhibition activities. Adams’s responsibilities will include the installation of collection galleries, the development of special exhibitions and catalogues, and participating in the Museum’s acquisitions and research programs for Latin American art. She will join the Museum in the Department of Painting and Sculpture on September 1, 2019.

In this role, Adams will add to the expertise of the existing curatorial staff as one of two curators devoted to Latin American Art. As part of the Museum’s commitment to the region, the Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art will work closely with Inés Katzenstein, Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America.

“Beverly Adams brings to MoMA a distinguished record as a scholar and curator of Latin American art,” said Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture. “She also brings an enthusiastic and collegial viewpoint as we think across geographical boundaries to offer new readings of the history of modern art.”

“I am excited to take this position at a time of tremendous momentum for Latin American art at MoMA,” said Adams. “MoMA has a long history of engagement with Latin American art and today has the most outstanding collection of its type. I look forward to building on that foundation and bringing new perspectives to the collection and to exhibitions.”

Adams is currently the curator of Latin American art at the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin, where she most recently organized The Avant-Garde Networks of Amauta: Argentina, Mexico, and Peru in the 1920s (2019) with Natalia Majluf, Director and Chief Curator, Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru. Other exhibitions she has organized at the Blanton include Words/Matter: Latin American Art and Language (with Florencia Bazzano, 2019), Clarissa Tossin: Meeting of Waters (2018), Javier Téllez: Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who See (2017), and Fixing Shadows: Contemporary Peruvian Photography, 1968– 2015 (2016). During her time at the Blanton, she spearheaded the reinstallation of the Latin American permanent collection galleries in 2017 and was instrumental in the acquisition of Dr. Jacqueline Barnitz’s collection of Latin American art.

From 2001 to 2013 Adams was curator for the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, where she helped assemble one of the most important private collections of modern and contemporary Latin American art in the United States. She organized exhibitions and published catalogues featuring the Halle Collection for the Phoenix Art Museum (with Vanessa Davidson, 2013), Aspen Institute (2010), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2007).

Adams has written on diverse topics and artists, including the history of collecting Latin American Art in the US, drawing in Latin America, and the New York Graphic Workshop. She has contributed essays and chapters to a range of publications, including “Fanny Sanin” in Art_Latin_America: Against the Survey (2019); “Hacia un arte total: Luis Camnitzer como educador/artista,” in Luis Camnitzer: Hospicio de Utopias fallidos (2018); and “The Space of Reflections: Teresita Fernández’s Fata Morgana,” in Teresita Fernandez: Fata Morgana (2015). In addition, Adams conducted an interview with Antonio Manuel in Antonio Manuel: I Want to Act, Not Represent (2012) and an interview with Tunga in Tunga: Laminated Souls (2007).

Adams previously held curatorial positions at the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Phoenix Art Museum. She developed and taught 20th-century Latin American art history courses at Arizona State University from 1997 to 1999. Adams holds a PhD in art history from The University of Texas at Austin.

Featured image: Beverly Adams. Courtesy: Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin