Thomas Krens
Encyclopedia
Thomas Krens is the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
in New York City, and currently the Guggenheim's Senior Advisor for International Affairs, overseeing the completion of the Frank Gehry
-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
. From the beginning of his work at the Guggenheim, Krens promised, and delivered, great change, and was frequently in the spotlight, often as a figure of controversy.
During his 20-year tenure as director he expanded the Guggenheim
globally by enlarging and raising the profile of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
in Venice, Italy, and then building the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
, Spain (1997), Deutsche Guggenheim
, Berlin
, Germany (1997), the Guggenheim Las Vegas (2001, closed 2003) and Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
, also in Las Vegas, (2001, closed May 2008), Guggenheim Guadalajara
, Mexico (cancelled in 2009, originally to open 2011), and the Abu Dhabi expansion (due to open 2012). Krens spearheaded spectacular exhibitions such as The Art of the Motorcycle
and ambitious shows covering the art of entire countries, including China and Brazil. As director, Krens increased the Guggenheim’s endowment from US$ to US$ .
Krens was succeeded as director of the Guggenheim Foundation by Richard Armstrong, formerly a Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art
and a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art
.
Krens was at the forefront of this movement, and became a high profile figure in the world of art museums, corporate and foundation philanthropy, and the marketing of art to the public. On the subject of branding
the Guggenheim, Krens said, "A good brand becomes an article of faith among a consumer audience. If you buy a BMW or a Mercedes, or stay at a Four Seasons hotel or go the Louvre, you can be pretty much guaranteed a quality experience." During his tenure, Krens has increased the Guggenheim’s endowment to $118 million from $20 million, although he has been known to dip into the endowment to cover operating costs.
, James Rosenquist
, Roy Lichtenstein
, Ellsworth Kelly
, Roni Horn
, Richard Prince
, and Matthew Barney
.
In 1989, Krens negotiated a gift of Impressionist paintings from the widow of Justin K. Thannhauser, acquired works of Minimalist art from the Panza Collection
and oversaw the commissions of major artworks by Jeff Koons
, Rosenquist, Rachel Whiteread
and Gerhard Richter
at Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. These works later became part of the Guggenheim’s collection. In Bilbao, Krens led an acquisitions program that has included major installations of works by Richard Serra
, Koons, Jenny Holzer
and Louise Bourgeois
. He also has doubled the size of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
While The Wall Street Journal complained at the time of many institutions expanding more rapidly than their collections allowed, leaving empty display space, the Guggenheim under Krens also found itself quickly acquiring new collections and being strapped for somewhere to put them, driving the need for expansions such as the Bilbao museum. Krens pointed out that the Guggenheim and many museums already had more objects in storage than they could hope to display, and spreading them geographically is a good solution. The Guggenheim in 1992 had space to display at one time 3% of its 6,000 works.
The strategy pursued, radical in the eyes of traditionalists, consisted of new construction and renovation, financed by bonds, and franchising by building satellite institutions around the world. Krens denied that deaccessioning (selling works from the collection) was a policy as well, though he was accused of treating the museum's collection of masterpieces as mere assets.
The success of the Guggenheim Bilbao expansion was credited to Krens' tenacity and salesmanship, and was a major victory for him. As of 2006 the Guggenheim museums worldwide were steadily getting 2.5 million visitors a year for the prior 4–5 years, and had tripled the attendance at the New York museum, according to Krens. Part of the strategy of international expansion was for host country governments to bear the costs, benefiting from prestige and tourist income.
) to raise $47 million to acquire newer 1960s and 1970s Minimalist sculptures from the Panza Collection
. That is, the Guggenheim was accused of being trendy, and The New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman said the sales "stretched the accepted rules of deaccessioning further than many American institutions have been willing to do." Krens pointed out that the works acquired were no longer considered contemporary, but rather classics, and that such sales are a regular practice by museums.
One of his harshest critics is the New Criterions Hilton Kramer
, who sees Krens as a "bureaucrat" who has caused disaster at a major cultural institution. Kramer's reaction to The Art of the Motorcycle was condemnation, and the hint of scandal over the financing of a Guggenheim retrospective of the work of fashion designer Giorgio Armani
elicited withering attacks. The charge that the Guggenheim had sold out to the mass market coincided with hip-hop at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
featuring guitar design, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art presenting rock music performance costumes. Krens dismissed the suggestion that Armani rented out the Guggenheim to show its wares, saying, "It's a non-story. Who do you get to support an institution? People who have relationships with it."
Krens gave up day-to-day control of the New York museum in 2005. Lisa Dennison became the new museum director while Krens remained director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, amid some grumbling that the New York City building was being neglected, and financial friction with foundation trustees. Also in 2005, there was an attempt to force Krens out by a Guggenheim board member, billionaire philanthropist Peter Louis, who had given US$ to the foundation. Louis had become alarmed over the foundation's financial position and its reputation. The dispute ended with the board backing Krens and Lewis resigning.
Krens is seen by some young museum directors as a role model, or perhaps a cautionary tale. Exhibitions credited to inspiration by Krens have since appeared, such as a 2009 motorcycle show in Sydney, Australia. Guggenheim's Bilbao project is also credited with directly inspiring Fourth Grace
in Liverpool and the Imperial War Museum North
near Manchester. Norman Rosenthal
, Exhibitions Secretary of the Royal Academy
, said of Thomas Krens, "Krens is his own worst enemy. Everybody thinks that he is a corporate business type, but he is actually a great dreamer."
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1937 by philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim and artist Hilla von Rebay. The first museum established by the foundation was the "Museum of Non-Objective Art", which was housed in rented space on Park Avenue in New York....
in New York City, and currently the Guggenheim's Senior Advisor for International Affairs, overseeing the completion of the Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is a planned museum, to be located in Abu Dhabi, UAE. On July 8, 2006, the city of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, announced it had signed an agreement with the Guggenheim Foundation in New York to build a Guggenheim Museum. It will be the world's largest...
. From the beginning of his work at the Guggenheim, Krens promised, and delivered, great change, and was frequently in the spotlight, often as a figure of controversy.
During his 20-year tenure as director he expanded the Guggenheim
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
globally by enlarging and raising the profile of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation....
in Venice, Italy, and then building the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...
, Spain (1997), Deutsche Guggenheim
Deutsche Guggenheim
The Deutsche Guggenheim is an art museum, located in the ground floor of the Deutsche Bank building, a sandstone building constructed in 1920 on the Unter den Linden boulevard in Berlin, Germany....
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany (1997), the Guggenheim Las Vegas (2001, closed 2003) and Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum was a museum in The Venetian, one of the world's largest hotels in Paradise, Nevada, located on the Strip in Las Vegas, USA. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas, opened October 7, 2001, and added three more collections and exhibits subsequent to its opening...
, also in Las Vegas, (2001, closed May 2008), Guggenheim Guadalajara
Guggenheim Guadalajara
The Guggenheim Guadalajara was an art museum proposed by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. If constructed, the 24-story tower designed by architect Enrique Norten would have been scheduled to be completed in 2011, however it was canceled in October 2009.The...
, Mexico (cancelled in 2009, originally to open 2011), and the Abu Dhabi expansion (due to open 2012). Krens spearheaded spectacular exhibitions such as The Art of the Motorcycle
The Art of the Motorcycle
The Art of the Motorcycle was an exhibition that presented 114 motorcycles chosen for their historic importance or design excellence in a display designed by Frank Gehry in the curved rotunda of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, running for three months...
and ambitious shows covering the art of entire countries, including China and Brazil. As director, Krens increased the Guggenheim’s endowment from US$ to US$ .
Krens was succeeded as director of the Guggenheim Foundation by Richard Armstrong, formerly a Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art
Carnegie Museum of Art
The Carnegie Museum of Art, located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an art museum founded in 1895 by the Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie...
and a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
.
Directorship of the Guggenheim Foundation
When Krens became the Guggenheim's director in 1988, faced with a tight budget, a building in need of renovation and weak donor interest, he said, "If you want a vital institution, change has to take place on so many fronts that it's likely to be bewildering." The 90s were a period of rapid expansion of museums across the US, not only the Guggenheim, and museum attendance was rising.Krens was at the forefront of this movement, and became a high profile figure in the world of art museums, corporate and foundation philanthropy, and the marketing of art to the public. On the subject of branding
Brand management
Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand.The discipline of brand management was started at Procter & Gamble as a result of a famous memo by Neil H...
the Guggenheim, Krens said, "A good brand becomes an article of faith among a consumer audience. If you buy a BMW or a Mercedes, or stay at a Four Seasons hotel or go the Louvre, you can be pretty much guaranteed a quality experience." During his tenure, Krens has increased the Guggenheim’s endowment to $118 million from $20 million, although he has been known to dip into the endowment to cover operating costs.
Exhibitions and aqcuisitions
Krens mounted several historic exhibitions that rank among the 10 best-attended shows in the Guggenheim's history: "Africa: The Art of a Continent," in 1996; "China: 5,000 Years," in 1998, "Brazil: Body & Soul," in 2001; and "The Aztec Empire," in 2004. Moreover, under his leadership the Guggenheim organized major retrospectives of Claes OldenburgClaes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
, James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist is an American artist and one of the protagonists in the pop-art movement.-Background and education:...
, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
, Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly is an American painter and sculptor associated with Hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and the Minimalist school. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing the simplicity of form found similar to the work of John McLaughlin. Kelly often employs bright colors to...
, Roni Horn
Roni Horn
Roni Horn is an American visual artist and writer. Horn's oeuvre, which spans almost four decades, encompasses sculpture, drawing, photography, language, and site-specific installation. The granddaughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, she was born in New York and lives and works in New York...
, Richard Prince
Richard Prince
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
, and Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His early works were sculptural installations combined with performance and video...
.
In 1989, Krens negotiated a gift of Impressionist paintings from the widow of Justin K. Thannhauser, acquired works of Minimalist art from the Panza Collection
Giuseppe Panza
Giuseppe Panza was one of the world's most prominent collectors of modern art.. He lived in Milan and Varese, Italy.-Life and work:...
and oversaw the commissions of major artworks by Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons
Jeffrey "Jeff" Koons is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces....
, Rosenquist, Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
and Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter is a German visual artist. Richter has simultaneously produced abstract and photorealistic painted works, as well as photographs and glass pieces, thus undermining the concept of the artist’s obligation to maintain a single cohesive style.- Biography :Gerhard Richter was born in...
at Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. These works later became part of the Guggenheim’s collection. In Bilbao, Krens led an acquisitions program that has included major installations of works by Richard Serra
Richard Serra
Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
, Koons, Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.-Education:...
and Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
. He also has doubled the size of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Museum expansion
Krens first conceived of converting a former factory in Massachusetts into the world's largest contemporary art museum back when he was director of Williams College Museum of Art, one of many tentative expansion projects that Krens launched or proposed when he came to the Guggenheim. He was not discouraged by those that did not get off the ground, and through persistence was able to see several huge projects to completion. The success of the expansion in Berlin came on the heels of the collapse of a proposed Guggenheim satellite in Salzburg, Austria, while at one time there were as many as three nascent projects in the offing in Venice.While The Wall Street Journal complained at the time of many institutions expanding more rapidly than their collections allowed, leaving empty display space, the Guggenheim under Krens also found itself quickly acquiring new collections and being strapped for somewhere to put them, driving the need for expansions such as the Bilbao museum. Krens pointed out that the Guggenheim and many museums already had more objects in storage than they could hope to display, and spreading them geographically is a good solution. The Guggenheim in 1992 had space to display at one time 3% of its 6,000 works.
The strategy pursued, radical in the eyes of traditionalists, consisted of new construction and renovation, financed by bonds, and franchising by building satellite institutions around the world. Krens denied that deaccessioning (selling works from the collection) was a policy as well, though he was accused of treating the museum's collection of masterpieces as mere assets.
The success of the Guggenheim Bilbao expansion was credited to Krens' tenacity and salesmanship, and was a major victory for him. As of 2006 the Guggenheim museums worldwide were steadily getting 2.5 million visitors a year for the prior 4–5 years, and had tripled the attendance at the New York museum, according to Krens. Part of the strategy of international expansion was for host country governments to bear the costs, benefiting from prestige and tourist income.
Deaccessioning
In 1990, amidst a wave US museums selling off parts of their collections, Krens was in the spotlight for selling works from what was seen as the Guggenheim's older, core collection (Kandinsky, Chagall and ModiglianiAmedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
) to raise $47 million to acquire newer 1960s and 1970s Minimalist sculptures from the Panza Collection
Giuseppe Panza
Giuseppe Panza was one of the world's most prominent collectors of modern art.. He lived in Milan and Varese, Italy.-Life and work:...
. That is, the Guggenheim was accused of being trendy, and The New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman said the sales "stretched the accepted rules of deaccessioning further than many American institutions have been willing to do." Krens pointed out that the works acquired were no longer considered contemporary, but rather classics, and that such sales are a regular practice by museums.
Style and controversy
Krens has been the subject of criticism, both for his businesslike style and the way he changed museums, in particular the showmanship, populism and commercialization involved. Krens denied seeking to become a public figure, and said his media reputation is the result of "mostly inaccurate caricatures."One of his harshest critics is the New Criterions Hilton Kramer
Hilton Kramer
Hilton Kramer is a U.S. art critic and cultural commentator.Kramer was educated at Syracuse University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Indiana University and the New School for Social Research. He worked as the editor of Arts Magazine, art critic for The Nation, and from 1965 to 1982,...
, who sees Krens as a "bureaucrat" who has caused disaster at a major cultural institution. Kramer's reaction to The Art of the Motorcycle was condemnation, and the hint of scandal over the financing of a Guggenheim retrospective of the work of fashion designer Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...
elicited withering attacks. The charge that the Guggenheim had sold out to the mass market coincided with hip-hop at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
featuring guitar design, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art presenting rock music performance costumes. Krens dismissed the suggestion that Armani rented out the Guggenheim to show its wares, saying, "It's a non-story. Who do you get to support an institution? People who have relationships with it."
Krens gave up day-to-day control of the New York museum in 2005. Lisa Dennison became the new museum director while Krens remained director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, amid some grumbling that the New York City building was being neglected, and financial friction with foundation trustees. Also in 2005, there was an attempt to force Krens out by a Guggenheim board member, billionaire philanthropist Peter Louis, who had given US$ to the foundation. Louis had become alarmed over the foundation's financial position and its reputation. The dispute ended with the board backing Krens and Lewis resigning.
Krens is seen by some young museum directors as a role model, or perhaps a cautionary tale. Exhibitions credited to inspiration by Krens have since appeared, such as a 2009 motorcycle show in Sydney, Australia. Guggenheim's Bilbao project is also credited with directly inspiring Fourth Grace
Fourth Grace
The Fourth Grace was a planned development to be built on the Liverpool Pier Head, as a part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 bid.The winning entry, named "The Cloud", was designed by the architect Will Alsop....
in Liverpool and the Imperial War Museum North
Imperial War Museum North
Imperial War Museum North is a museum in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. One of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum, the museum explores the impact of modern conflicts on people and society. It is the first branch of the Imperial War Museum to be...
near Manchester. Norman Rosenthal
Norman Rosenthal
Sir Norman Rosenthal is a British curator. He was Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy from 1977 until 2008. His encyclopedic programme of exhibitions which stretched from Egyptian antiquities to recent art production, included the exhibition of Charles Saatchi's collection of contemporary...
, Exhibitions Secretary of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, said of Thomas Krens, "Krens is his own worst enemy. Everybody thinks that he is a corporate business type, but he is actually a great dreamer."