D'Harnoncourt, Anne 1943–2008

(Anne Julie d'Harnoncourt)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 7, 1943, in Washington, DC; died June 2, 2008, in Philadelphia, PA. Museum director and executive, exhibition curator, art cataloger, and author. D'Harnoncourt spent all but two years of her professional life at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, beginning as a curatorial assistant in 1967. By 1982 she had become the George D. Widener Director of the museum, and in 1997 she was elevated to the post of chief executive officer. It was a substantial achievement for a woman in the world of museum management, but d'Harnoncourt's qualifications were beyond dispute. She was a tireless fundraiser for projects to enhance the museum's exhibition space and its holdings of modern art. Her last major project, a one-half-billion-dollar subterranean expansion of gallery space, was in progress at the time of her death. D'Harnoncourt had a particular interest in the work of Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, and she was affiliated with at least four exhibitions of his work from New York City to Tokyo and Barcelona. She edited and introduced the catalog Marcel Duchamp produced by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1973. D'Harnoncourt also created the exhibition catalog Futurism and the International Avant-Garde (1980). One of her last works was Outside the Ordinary: Michael E. Hoffman; A Tribute in Pictures (2003).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, June 3, 2008, sec. 2, p. 5.

Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2008, p. B7.

Washington Post, June 5, 2008, p. B8.