Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Clément Cheroux returns to his native France to direct the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, a photography institute in Paris. His resignation, announced Thursday by the French foundation, comes after just two years at MoMA.
During Chéroux’s short tenure, which began in the summer of 2020, the department acquired works by Deana Lawson, Sara VanDerBeek and other new talents, as well as important archival collections such as: Marilyn Nance photo Two important photographic exhibitions curated by Roxana Marcoci, Chéroux’s colleague at FESTAC 77, the famous African arts festival of 1977, are currently underway.
MoMA’s photography department continues to reorganize its collection exhibitions, which now include a mix of art disciplines. The museum’s first gallery, formerly home to Cézanne’s “The Bather” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” now explores how early photography captures the changing nature of 19th-century European and American cities. I’m looking into taka.
The Cartier-Bresson Foundation was established in 2003 to preserve the archives of Henri Cartier-Bresson and his wife, photographer Martine Franck, and to provide exhibition space for other photographers. In 2018, he moved from the artist’s studio in Montparnasse to his current home in the Marais, and this November will open a new exhibition gallery that will expand the foundation’s home by a third of his size.
Chéroux’s resignation again leaves one of the most prestigious posts in American photography vacant, previously held by Edward Steichen and John Szarkowski. In a statement, MoMA director Glenn D. Rowley called Sheru “a talented curator and a beloved colleague who has provided leadership for our photography program during very difficult times.”