Thomas Messer

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Thomas Maria Messer (born February 9, 1920 in Bratislava , Czechoslovakia ; died May 15, 2013 in New York City ) was a Czech-American museum director and director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation .

Life

Messer grew up in a family of professors in Prague and began studying chemistry at the Charles University there . After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, he tried to get an exchange scholarship for the United States . When crossing the Atlantic, he survived the torpedoing of the Athenia . He first came to Thiel College , Mercer County , and then studied languages ​​at Boston University . In 1944, as an American citizen, he became a soldier in the United States Army , which deployed him in the Office of Military Government for Germany in Munich after the end of the war .

After his release, Messer took a Cours de civilization française at the Sorbonne in 1947 . Back in the United States, he married Remedio Garcia Villa and was director of the Roswell Museum in Roswell, New Mexico, founded in 1935 from 1949 to 1952 . In 1951, Messer received his Master of Arts in art history and museum studies from Harvard University . In 1956 he received a position at the American Federation of Arts and from 1957 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. The Harvard University employed him on the side with teaching positions in art history.

In 1961, Thomas Messer took over the management of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, which he expanded until 1986. During his service there he curated several exhibitions, including three about Jean Dubuffet and four about Wassily Kandinsky . Under his patronage, the first comprehensive retrospective of the German sculptor and artist Joseph Beuys took place in the United States from November 1979 to January 1980 . From 1981 to 1988, Messer headed the Guggenheim Foundation and thereby exerted a worldwide influence on the development of museum operations. He succeeded in bringing the majority of the Justin Thannhauser collection to the house, integrated the Peggy Guggenheim Collection with the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice into the foundation, and by taking over the American pavilion ensured the museum was involved in the Venice Biennale .

Thomas Krens, who came to the Guggenheim Museum as director in 1988 , inherited Thomas Messer two years before his retirement. Messer was most recently active at the Frankfurt Schirn and the Czech National Gallery .

Fonts (selection)

  • Edvard Munch . Transfer from d. Engl. By Herbert Schuldt. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg 1976.
  • Thomas Krens (foreword): Rendezvous. Masterpieces from the Center Georges Pompidou and the Guggenheim Museums . Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York 1998, ISBN 0-89207-213-X .
  • Mark Rosenthal / Sean Rainbird / Claudia Schmuckli: Joseph Beuys. Actions, showcases, environments . The Menil Collection, Houston, Tate Modern, Yale University Press 2004, ISBN 0-300-10496-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Russell: Director of Guggenheim Retiring After 27 Years , The New York Times , Nov. 5, 1987
  2. ↑ Bruce Weber: Thomas M. Messer, Museum Director Who Gave Guggenheim Cachet, Dies at 93 , The New York Times , May 15, 2013
  3. ↑ a b Thomas Krens (foreword): Rendezvous. Masterpieces from the Center Georges Pompidou and the Guggenheim Museums . Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York 1998, ISBN 0-89207-213-X
  4. ^ Mark Rosenthal / Sean Rainbird / Claudia Schmuckli: Joseph Beuys. Actions, showcases, environments . The Menil Collection, Houston October 8, 2004 to January 2, 2005, Tate Modern, London February 4 to May 2, 2005, Yale University Press 2004, ISBN 0-300-10496-0 , p. 188
personal data
SURNAME Messer, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Messer, Thomas Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech-American museum director and director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Bratislava , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 2013
Place of death New York City