Ingrid Schaffner has been appointed curator by the Chinati Foundation, the Marfa, Texas–based museum founded on the ideals of Donald Judd. In 2018, Schaffner organized Pittsburgh’s fifty-seventh Carnegie International, which included thirty-two artists and collectives—Alex Da Corte, El Anatsui, IM Heung-soon and Han Kang, Joan Jonas, Kerry James Marshall, and Park McArthur among them—from some two-dozen countries, and sought to inspire what she termed “museum joy.” As curator of the quinquennial, North America’s oldest exhibition of contemporary art, Schaffner also oversaw public programming, publications, and grant-supported studies to situate Pittsburgh within a global art context.

“Donald Judd’s concept for the Chinati Foundation was curatorial: to permanently site works of art within a dynamic of exhibitions, scholarship, artists residencies, and events,” Schaffner said. “It is an honor to build on the curatorial legacy established by Judd.” The Museum of Modern Art in New York will open a Judd retrospective next month.

From 2000 to 2015, Schaffner was chief curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, where she organized exhibitions with artists such as Polly Apfelbaum, Barry LeVa, Karen Kilmnik and Jason Rhoades. A specialist in twentieth-century art, specifically Surrealism, Schaffner is the author of more than twenty books as well as numerous magazine articles, reviews, and features. 

Chinati director Jenny Moore said: “Ingrid is an outstanding curator, highly esteemed in the field for making an incredible range of exhibitions, from expansive surveys to revelatory solo shows. We look forward to having Ingrid’s talent and expertise shape this next phase of Chinati’s history.”