Denise Murrell

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Dr. Denise Murrell is associate curator for 19th and 20th century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[1]

Early life[]

Murrell spent her teenage years in Gastonia, North Carolina. At the time, she had aspirations of becoming a history professor.[2]

Education[]

Murrell earned her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1980.[3] She was one of only 30 black students in her class and one of less than ten women.[2][4] She eventually took classes in art history at Hunter College and earned a Master's as well as PhD in the subject at Columbia University.[4]

Career[]

Murrell began taking art history classes in 1999 while working in business and finance at Institutional Investor.[2] After earning a Master's and PhD in the subject, she transitioned into the art history discipline, but had difficulty securing a position.[5] Finally, she gained her first position in the field writing and giving gallery talks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She began specializing in several areas, including African American and diasporan art, Matisse, the School of Paris, Manet, and Impressionism,[4] receiving a $100,000 postdoctoral research fellowship from the Ford Foundation in 2014 to carry out her work.[5] The research led to her first exhibition, staged at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, called Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today,[6] which included works such as "Miss LaLa at the Cirque Fernando" by Edgar Degas. The exhibition was then brought to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France, exhibited under the title Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse.[6] She authored a companion book to the exhibits, identically titled to Columbia's iteration.[7]

Bibliography[]

  • Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today, Yale University Press (2018)[7]

References[]

  1. ^ "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Has Hired Star Curator Dr. Denise Murrell". November 20, 2019.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Smith, Melissa (December 26, 2018). "How a Businesswoman Became a Voice for Art's Black Models". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "Story Details - Alumni - Harvard Business School". www.alumni.hbs.edu.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c "HBSAAA - Denise Murrell". hbsaaa.net.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Sheets, Hilarie M. (October 25, 2018). "New Attention for Figures in the Background". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "Musée d'Orsay Puts Focus on Overlooked and Anonymous Black Models in French Masterpieces". Hyperallergic. March 26, 2019.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Posing Modernity | Yale University Press". yalebooks.yale.edu.
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