Matthew D. Teitelbaum (born February 13, 1956) is a Canadian
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 ...
, who is currently the director of
Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
.
Early life and education
Born in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Teitelbaum is the third child and only son of the late painter
Mashel Teitelbaum
Mashel Teitelbaum (1921–1985) (variant name Mashel Alexander Teitelbaum) was a Canadian painter, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1921. He was the father of museum director Matthew Teitelbaum.
Career
At first, self-taught but studied from 1 ...
.
His mother Ethel was an administrator and later a government official.
The household was noisy, busy, and frequented by artists, politicians, writers, and media figures.
Teitelbaum holds a
BA in
Canadian history
The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...
from
Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...
and an
MPhil
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...
in modern
European painting
The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from classical antiquity, antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with Representational art, representational ...
and
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
from the
Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
.
Career
Teitelbaum has taught and lectured at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
,
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
, and the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...
.
Teitelbaum first held curatorial positions with the
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple na ...
, and the
Mendel Art Gallery
The Mendel Art Gallery was a major creative cultural centre in City Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Operating from 1964 to 2015, it housed a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works of art. The gallery was managed by the city-owned Saskatoon G ...
. He later joined the
Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...
in 1993 as chief
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 ...
and was later appointed as the Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO in 1998. As a curator, he has published numerous publications and exhibition catalogues on modern and contemporary Canadian artists as
Greg Curnoe
Greg Curnoe (19 November 1936 – 14 November 1992) was a Canadian painter known for his role in the Canadian art movement labeled London Regionalism,
which, beginning in the 1960s, made London, Ontario, an important centre for artistic produ ...
,
Paterson Ewen
Paterson Ewen D.Litt LL. D. (April 7, 1925 – February 17, 2002) was a Canadian painter. Ewen was a founding member of the Non-figurative artist's association of Montréal, along with Claude Tousignant, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Guido Molinari, and M ...
,
Joe Fafard
Joseph Fafard (September 2, 1942 – March 16, 2019) was a Canadian sculptor.
Biography
Joseph Fafard was a twelfth generation Canadian born in 1942 in Ste. Marthe, Saskatchewan, to French Canadians Leopold Fafard and Julienne Cantin. Fafard is ...
,
Betty Goodwin
Betty Roodish Goodwin, (March 19, 1923 – December 1, 2008) was a multidisciplinary Canadian artist who expressed the complexity of human experience through her work.
Early life
Goodwin was born in Montreal, the only child of Romanian imm ...
,
Edward Poitras
Edward Poitras (born in 1953) is a Métis artist based in Saskatchewan. His work, mixed-media sculptures and installations, explores the themes of history, treaties, colonialism, and life both in urban spaces and nature.[Robert Wiens
Robert Wiens (born 1953 in Leamington, Ontario) is a Canadian visual artist.
Biography
Robert Wiens was born in Leamington, Ontario in 1953, and currently lives in Picton, Ontario. He attended the New School of Art from 1973 to 1974, and had ...]
.
[https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3ATeitelbaum%2C+Matthew.&qt=hot_author ] As the museum's director and CEO, he oversaw the institution’s $306 million expansion and renovation of its Beaux-Arts building by the architect
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions.
His works are considered ...
.
On April 9, 2015, the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
announced that Teitelbaum had been chosen to serve as its Ann and Graham Gund Director, replacing
Malcolm Rogers, who had served as the museum's director for 21 years.
Personal life
Teitelbaum is married to Susan M. Cohen, who served as the executive director of the
W. Garfield Weston Foundation. They have two sons, Max and Elijah.
Honors
*
Honorary Doctor of Law,
Queen's University,
Kingston,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada (2002)
*
Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and letters, Arts and Letters) is an Order (distinction), order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Ministry of Culture (France), Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the w ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
(2006)
*Member of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
(2019)
References
External links
Art Gallery of Ontario profileMatthew Teitelbaum at bostonmagazine.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teitelbaum, Matthew
1956 births
Living people
Canadian Jews
People from Toronto
Carleton University alumni
Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art
Directors of museums in Canada
Directors of museums in the United States
Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Canadian art curators
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Members of the Order of Canada