Helen Achbar Cooper, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, has been appointed acting director of the Yale University Art Gallery, President Richard C. Levin recently announced.
Ms. Cooper has been a member of the Yale community since the early 1970's, when she came to the University to pursue graduate studies after receiving her bachelor's degree from Syracuse University. She began working in the art gallery while a graduate student and has worked there ever since, rising in the ranks from curatorial assistant to assistant curator, then associate curator, and, in 1980, to curator of American paintings and sculpture.
"Winslow Homer Watercolors," Ms. Cooper's 1986 Ph.D. dissertation, won the Frances Blanshard Prize for the most distinguished dissertation presented to the history of art department. In 1992, she was appointed the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture. Among the subjects of her catalogues and exhibitions are Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Eva Hesse, the American West and, in the spring of this year, the rowing pictures of Thomas Eakins. Ms. Cooper has been a fellow of Jonathan Edwards College since 1980.
Ms. Cooper's "distinction as a curator, as well as her integrity, graciousness, and her long experience in the gallery, make her the ideal person to hold the appointment of acting director until such time as a new director is in place," said President Richard C. Levin in announcing Ms. Cooper's appointment.
Ms. Cooper replaces Susan Vogel, who for the past three years served as the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the gallery. During her tenure, Ms. Vogel "helped the gallery secure the resources that are so vital to its ongoing operations and expansion plans," President Levin said. "We are also grateful for the stunning exhibition of African art now mounted in the gallery. I know that all members of the gallery staff, and everyone at Yale, join me in thanking her and wishing her great success in all her future endeavors."
A search committee chaired by David Pease, dean of the School of Art, has been appointed to seek a permanent gallery director.