Kelly New Deputy Director at NGA
Franklin Kelly to Succeed Alan Shestack at National Gallery of Art
Franklin Kelly will replace Alan Shestack as the deputy director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., beginning October 1, 2008.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. announced on May 2, 2008 that Franklin Kelly will succeed Alan Shestack as the museum's deputy director and chief curator, effective October 1, 2008. Mr. Shestack is retiring after a 43-year career in museums.
Franklin Kelly
Dr. Franklin Kelly has served the NGA in various curatorial capacities over 21 years. A leading authority on American art and the Hudson River School, he co-organized such special exhibitions as J.M.W. Turner (2007-2008) and Winslow Homer (1995-1996). Kelly curated Frederic Edwin Church (1989-1990). He helped the museum in acquiring Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon (1816) by John Martin (1789-1854), Italian Coast Scene with Ruined Tower (1838) by Thomas Cole (1801-1848), Lake Lucerne (1858) by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Home, Sweet Home (ca. 1863) by Winslow Homer (1836-1910), The Old Violin (1886) by William Michael Harnett (1848-1892) and Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth (ca. 1890) by Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904).
Senior Curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art since 2002, Mr. Kelly is also the author of many scholarly books, exhibition catalogues, articles and essays. He was Curator of Collections at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1988-1990); Associate Curator of Paintings at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (1983-1985); and a Samuel H. Kress Fellow at the NGA's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts for two years. He has been a professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park since 1990. Kelly taught at the University of Delaware, Newark (1990) and Princeton University (1991).
Franklin Kelly received his Ph.D. in art history and the Sypherd Prize for outstanding dissertation in the humanities from the University of Delaware (1985). He earned an M.A. from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (1979) and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1974).
Alan Shestack
During his distinguished 15-year career at the National Gallery of Art, Alan Shestack assisted in thousands of acquisitions, produced hundreds of publications, oversaw the development of the museum's website, reorganized and upgraded its photographic services and expanded its educational programs for students and teachers alike.
Mr. Shestack is an expert in German and Netherlandish art of Reformation Europe, particularly prints and drawings. He wrote Fifteenth-century Engravings of Northern Europe (1967), numerous articles on 15th- and 16th-century European art and co-authored the award-winning exhibition catalogue Hans Baldung Grien: Prints and Drawings (1981) with James Marrow. He also served as the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (1983-1984).
Previous to the last 15 years at the NGA, Shestack was Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1987-1993); Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (1985-1987); Adjunct Professor of the History of Art at Yale University and Director of the Yale University Art Gallery (1971-1985); Curator of Prints and Drawings, Yale University Art Gallery (1968-1971); and Curator of Graphic Art, National Gallery of Art and the Lessing Rosenwald Collection, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania (1965-1968).
A David E. Finley Fellow at the NGA (1963-1965), Mr. Shestack attended the Courtauld Institute, University of London, the University of Munich and the Central Institute for Art History, also in Munich. He holds an M.A. from Harvard University (1963) and a B.A. with honors and distinction from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (1961).
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