Dia's new new director announced

The NY Times is reporting that Philippe Vergne will be leaving his position as deputy director of the Walker Art Center to become  the Dia Foundation's new director beginning in Mid September.  Here's a link to Carol Vogel's story.

Here's a release sent out by Dia earlier this evening:

We are pleased to report that Dia's board has appointed Philippe Vergne, deputy director and chief curator of the Walker Art Center, as Dia's next director.  He will begin on September 15, 2008.  

Mr. Vergne brings to Dia his distinguished experience in the field of contemporary art.  He joined the Walker in 1997 and has since organized more than twenty-five international exhibitions, inlcuding How Latitudes Becom Forms: Art in a Global Age, Let's Entertain, Herzog & de Meuron: In Process, and the first retrospective of the work of Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping (2005) and Kara Walker (2007).  In 2006 he co-curated the Whitney Biennial with Chrissie Iles.

During his tenure at the Walker, Mr. Vergne brought significant works to the collection by artists including Doug Aitken, Daniel Buren, Tony Conrad, Dan Graham, Rineke Dijstra, Sheela Gowda, David Hammons, Thomas Hirschhorn, Mr. Huang, Pierre Huyghe, Cameron Jamie, Mike Kelley, Yves Klein, Luc Tuymans, Philippe Parreno, and Ms. Walker, among others.  He is also a frequent lecturer, and has contributed essays and articles to numerous books, catalogues, and major art magazines.

There will be an article about Mr. Vergne's appointment in the arts section of tomorrow's New York Times, and additional information will be available on Dia's website (www.diaart.org).

The Legend of the Headless Art Foundation

image from Disney's "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" via Azathoth's Abode on the Plateau of Leng

Was it mere coincidence, or a knowing form of artworld commentary that the TNT network broadcast Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow last night just hours after Tyler Green served up a heaping MANscoop about Jeffrey Weiss stepping down as head of the Dia Foundation after nine months? Given the film is shown every three weeks on the network, the incident must surely be coincidental if not poetic. As I've only ever seen snippets of the film, and I've never seen the end, I don't know how fully fitting the analogy might be.

Anyway, Carol Vogel reports on the story in this morning's NY Times. Weiss told Vogel that he feels he was ill suited for the job, and it took him astray from the academic and curatorial activity he holds dear.