GABRIEL PéREZ-BARREIRO TO BE DIRECTOR OF COLECCIóN PATRICIA PHELPS DE CISNERNOS

Jessie Otto Hite, director of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin, announced today that Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, curator of Latin American art, will leave the museum on March 31 to accept the position of director of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), an extensive and internationally acclaimed collection of art from Latin America. “We are so fortunate that Gabriel was at the Blanton during this critical time in our museum’s evolution. I cannot think of a better person to have overseen the research and publication of our Latin American collection and the installation of that collection in our new galleries,” said Hite. The Blanton and the CPPC have collaborated for many years, most recently on a five-semester graduate seminar that culminated in the exhibition “The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection,” on view at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery through December 8. (See an Artforum.com review of the exhibition here.)

Pérez-Barreiro came to the Blanton in 2002 and guided the growth, development, and care of the museum’s collection of modern and contemporary Latin American art through research, exhibitions, and 215 acquisitions, including works by Waltercio Caldas, Yoshua Okon, and Francisco Matto. He edited and produced the first comprehensive catalogue of the Blanton’s Latin American collection in April 2006 in conjunction with the grand opening of the new Mari and James A. Michener Gallery building. The Blanton will begin an international search for a new curator of Latin American art in the coming weeks.