Jan van der Marck (19 August 192926 April 2010) was a Dutch-born American museum administrator,

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

, and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, focused on modern and contemporary art. Van der Marck authored and published many essays, articles and books about artists and art. He worked in various museum roles at the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

(1962–1967),

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

(1967–?), the University of Washington, the Hopkins Center Art Galleries at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

(1974–1980), the Center for the Fine Arts in Miami (1980–1986), and the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

(1986–1995).

Early life and education

He was born in

Roermond Roermond (; li, Remunj or ) is a city, municipality, and diocese in the Limburg province of the Netherlands. Roermond is a historically important town on the lower Roer on the east bank of the river Meuse. It received town rights in 1231. Roer ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, on August 19, 1929, to a family in the printing and publishing businesses. He attended

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century D ...

and received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1956, and his thesis was on 19th-century Belgian book illustration.

Career

Van der Marck arrived in the United States in 1957, after receiving a grant from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

to study museums and was able to learn from

Meyer Schapiro Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. His first museum job was in 1963 at the

, where he hosted exhibitions of

Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') to ...

and

Lucio Fontana Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist. He is mostly known as the founder of Spatialism. Early life Born in Rosario, to Italian immigrant parents, he was t ...

. He was the founding director of

in 1967, where he hosted Dan Flavin's first major museum exhibition. In 1969, van der Marck hosted the exhibition ''Art by Telephone'', where artists would call in the instructions on how to build and display their artwork. While he was in Chicago, van der Marck invited two unknown artists at the time,

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...

to wrap the museum building in canvas. After the wrapping of the building in canvas, he resigned from his position. In 1974, he joined the

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the o ...

(previously called Hopkins Center Art Galleries) as the director and he taught courses at

. He caused a controversy by placing an oversized sculpture ''X-Delta'' by

Mark di Suvero Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933, in Shanghai, China), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. Biography Early life and education Marco Polo di Suvero was bor ...

in the middle of a highly trafficked part of campus. In 1983, at the

Pérez Art Museum Miami The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Museum Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Center for t ...

(previously called Center for the Fine Arts in Miami) van der Marck invited Christo and Jeanne-Claude to wrap 11 islands in Biscayne Bay in pink fabric, later named ''

Surrounded Islands ''Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980–83'' was a 1983 environmental artwork in which artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude surrounded an island archipelago in Miami with pink fabric. Planning In 1980, while the coup ...

''. Van der Marck also worked with Christo and Jeanne-Claude on the work ''

Running Fence ''Running Fence'' was an installation art piece by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which was completed on September 10, 1976. The art installation was first conceived in 1972, but the actual project took more than four years to plan and build. After ...

'' in 1976''.'' Van der Marck was the chief curator at the

(DIA) from 1986 until 1995. In 1995, van der Marck was fired from his role due to a residency violation, he was required to live in Detroit and he was spending significant time in Huntington Woods instead. He died of cancer on April 26, 2010, in Huntington Woods, Michigan, at the age of 80.

Personal life

He married Ingeborg Lachmann in 1961; she died in 1988. His second wife was Sheila van der Marck, née Stamell.

References

External links

Jan Van der Marck papers, 1942-2010
from the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:van der Marck, Jan 1929 births 2010 deaths American curators American people of Dutch descent Directors of museums in the United States People from Huntington Woods, Michigan People from Roermond Radboud University Nijmegen alumni