Catherine Whitney joined Philbrook as Chief Curator and Curator of American Art on July 12. Whitney will oversee the curatorial department’s ambitious and expanding special exhibition programs, and research, interpret, install and further develop Philbrook’s collection of American Art.
Whitney’s comes to Tulsa via Washington, DC and Santa Fe, NM where she has worked in various museum and gallery positions. A graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine (BA in Studio Art and Art History) and University of Maryland (MA in Art History), Whitney worked at the National Gallery of Art in the conservation, education, and curatorial divisions. While DC, she also led tours at the Sewall-Belmont House (historic headquarters of the National Woman’s Party) and held a graduate internship in education at the Hillwood Museum. In 1995, Whitney moved to Santa Fe to become Curator of American Art and, later, Director of Twentieth-Century American Art at the Gerald Peters Gallery.
While her area of specialization is American Art, 1890-1940–particularly modernism and the regional Taos and Santa Fe painters–she also co-chaired the Contemporary Department at the gallery. She is board Vice President of the Southwest Art History Conference held annually in Taos, NM.
www.philbrook.org
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Just FYI: On the upper floor of your museum in the American Art section you have a painting called ‘Sunset Glow’ that according to the information tag beside it was painted by a man named Herzog. This is incorrect: the painting was actually by the German-American painter Albert Bierstadt. I know a Bierstadt when I see one, as I collect art prints by the Hudson River School artists. We asked about this discrepancy to a couple of your do-cents, and were assured that the painting WAS by Herzog, and it was just in a frame with a Bierstadt tag on it.
According to the internet, the Philbrook is the home to this particularly beautiful Bierstadt painting. I’d think you’d want the correct information not only with the painting, but with your aides out on the floor. Herzog’s use of light in his paintings is markedly different than Bierstadt’s, even though both of them painted the American West, especially around Yosemite. I just thought you might want to take a look for yourself. Thank you.