This coming week, the Menil Collection in Houston will host a conversation between its Senior Curator, Michelle White, and writer, curator, and podcaster Helen Molesworth.
Helen Molesworth. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe.
Ms. Molesworth’s book, Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing About Art, was published in November 2023. It is the first-ever published collection of her writing and includes 24 essays from the past three decades. When the book debuted last year, Ms. Molesworth spoke at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth’s Tuesday Evenings lecture series with Terri Thornton, the museum’s longtime Curator of Education, prior to her retirement.
Ms. Molesworth’s career as a curator includes time at the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY Old Westbury (1997–1999), the Baltimore Museum of Art (2000–2003), the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio (2003–2007), Harvard University Art Museums (2006–2010), the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2010–2014), and most recently the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (2014–2018). In 2018, Ms. Molesworth was abruptly fired from her position at MOCA. Though the Los Angeles Times reported that the museum cited “creative differences,” a museum trustee told artnet News that the reason given was that she had “undermin[ed] the museum.”
Though the museum never provided a more detailed comment about her departure, news outlets such as ARTnews have reported that Ms. Molesworth and Philippe Vergne, MOCA’s then-director, clashed over matters related to artist diversity and exhibitions of artists such as Doug Aitken and Carl Andre. Additionally, Ms. Molesworth had been publicly critical of MOCA being a “white space.”
Some of Ms. Molesworth’s most significant monographic exhibitions include shows by Ruth Asawa, Moyra Davey, Noah Davis, Steve Locke, Kerry James Marshall, Josiah McElheny, Catherine Opie, Amy Sillman, and Luc Tuymans. She has also been the recipient of a number of awards, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Clark Art Writing Prize, and the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Curatorial Excellence.
In 2022, Ms. Molesworth published Death of an Artist, a six-part podcast about the life and death of Ana Mendieta, a Cuban artist who was married to minimalist sculptor Carl Andre. Ms. Mendieta died in 1985 after falling from her apartment window; Mr. Andre was tried for her murder but acquitted of the charges. The podcast calls into question the relationship between the couple, the events surrounding Ms. Mendieta’s death, and the trial.
The conversation between Ms. White and Ms. Molesworth will take place on Thursday, March 7, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Menil’s main building (1533 Sul Ross Street). The program is free and open to the public; learn more here.
