The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989: Exhibition Team

The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989

January 30 - April 19, 2009

Exhibition Team

The Third Mind was conceived and organized by Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Vivien Greene, Curator of Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century Art of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, contributed expertise and the selection of works for the opening section Aestheticism and Japan: The Cult of the Orient, along with a scholarly essay in the exhibition catalogue. Research Associate Ikuyo Nakagawa, Assistant Curators Sandhini Poddar and Nat Trotman, and Asian Art Curatorial Fellow Yao Wu supported the realization of this project. An exhibition Advisory Committee of distinguished arts and humanities scholars provided input and insight into the development of this project.

Exhibition Curators

Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art

Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D is Senior Curator of Asian Art the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and a pioneering authority of modern and contemporary Asian art. She is curator of The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989 (winter 2009) and co-curator of Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe (2008) that drew record attendance. She has commissioned a major sculptural installation by Anish Kapoor, Memory, for Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin (winter 2008-09). An award-winning curator and former museum director, Munroe served as Vice President of Arts & Culture at the Japan Society, New York and Director of Japan Society Gallery from 1998-2005. For two consecutive years, The New York Times selected exhibitions Ms. Munroe directed at Japan Society as Number One Best Show of the Year. She is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of modern Asian art for her landmark exhibitions and publications including Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective (1989); Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky (1994), that was presented at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in 1995; The Art of Mu Xin (2002); and YES YOKO ONO (2000), which won First Prize for Best Museum Show Originating in New York City from the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and drew one million visitors over a 13-city international tour. AICA also awarded Ms. Munroe, as project director, First Prize for Best Thematic Show in New York City for Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture (2005), curated by Takashi Murakami. She holds a B.A. from Sophia University, Tokyo, an M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and a Ph.D. in History from NYU, where her research was modern East Asian intellectual history. She is a Trustee of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; The Korea Society; the U.S.-Japan Foundation; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Curator of Section One: Aestheticism and Japan: The Cult of the Orient

Vivien Greene, Curator of 19th- and Early 20th- Century Art

Vivien Greene, Ph.D is Curator of 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Greene focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century European and American art with a specialization in Italian art. She most recently organized the groundbreaking exhibition, Divisionism/Neo-Impressionism: Arcadia and Anarchy (Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin and Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2007). Greene has received fellowships which include a Fulbright Travel Grant to Italy and a Pre-doctoral Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She holds a Ph.D in Nineteenth-Century European Art History with a minor in American Art from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, a M.A. in Art History from Southern Methodist University, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is a Trustee of the Association of Art Museum Curators.

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