Bruce Guenther

Since 2000 Bruce Guenther has served as the Chief Curator of the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon as well as its curator of contemporary art. [Row, David. [http://blog.oregonlive.com/visualarts/2007/07/connecting_the_world_bruce_gue.html "The Connectors"] The Oregonian] Between 2003 and 2005 he oversaw the inauguration of the Jubitz Center for Contemporary Art at the museum and the creation of the Miller Meigs contemporary art series which has exhibited Damien Hirst, Roxy Paine, Pierre Huyghe and Kehinde Wiley among others. He was also instrumental in Blue Sky Gallery's purchase of a space on Portland's North park blocks.

In addition to administrative duties, Guenther is responsible for initiating and planning all exhibitions and permanent collection presentations of modern and contemporary art. He is also responsible for soliciting gifts and proposing acquisitions for the Museum’s permanent collection. During his tenure to date, the Museum has acquired significant works by Marcel Duchamp, Van Gogh, Robert Rauschenberg, Judy Chicago, Roxy Paine, Ruben Nakian, Philip Pearlstein, Roy Lichtenstein, Judy Chicago, Manuel Neri and Kiki Smith, among others. Guenther also conducts research and writes publications for the collections, Museum-organized exhibitions, and all in-gallery texts.

Background

Guenther has more than 30 years of Museum experience, having served as curator or director at five noteworthy institutions. A native Oregonian, Guenther’s museum career began at the Portland Art Museum in the early 1970s as a National Endowment for the Arts curatorial intern. He then moved to the Washington State University Museum of Art in Pullman, Washington, as its first curator and later served as the Museum’s director.

In 1979, he was appointed the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum, where he spent the next nine years directing the modern art program and organized over 45 exhibitions, including the landmark 1986 Jacob Lawrence traveling retrospective. He joined the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 1987, where he served as Chief Curator and organized exhibitions from Latin America and Europe. He also served for a period as Co-Acting Director of the institution. He became the Chief Curator of the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California, in 1991, helping to guide it through a programmatic expansion and remodeling project before joining the Portland Art Museum. In conjunction with his curatorial duties, Guenther was responsible for curatorial vision in the architectural programming for new museum buildings in Seattle, Chicago, and Portland, where he was responsible for all aspects of a new 28,000 sq.ft. wing for modern and contemporary art in 2005.

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