Birmingham Museum of Art Announces New European Curator
After an extensive national search, the Birmingham Museum of Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Schindler as Curator of European Art. Schindler comes to the Birmingham Museum from The Metropolitan Museum, where he held the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellowship in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Schindler to the Birmingham Museum of Art. He is a formidable scholar with an impressive background,” says Gail Andrews, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. “Dr. Schindler is inspired by our collection and recognizes its great potential. I look forward to his knowledgeable work as a curator, lecturer, and steward of our growing collection of European art. He makes an excellent addition to our staff.”
Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Jeannine O’Grody adds, “Dr. Schindler's enthusiastic approach to expanding our collection falls seamlessly in line with our institutional commitment of keeping our collection culturally relevant and engaging to our community, while striving towards a reputation of international acclaim.”
Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, Schindler studied art history and business administration at the Freie Universität Berlin. He served as a graduate intern in the manuscript department at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles before receiving his PhD in 2010. Thereafter, he accepted an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. Schindler went on to work in the European Art Department at the Detroit Institute of Arts prior to his fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and subsequent move to Birmingham.
Schindler’s overall area of expertise is late Medieval and early Northern European art. While working for the J. Paul Getty Museum, he organized the exhibition French Manuscript Illumination of the Middle Ages (2007). He has published on various aspects of French manuscript illumination of the 15th and 16th centuries, the topic of his dissertation, including a contribution to the catalogue of the exhibition Prayers in Code at the Walters Art Museum (2009).
Dr. Schindler’s first project is underway, as on-site curator of the Birmingham Museum of Art’s current exhibition, Delacroix and the Matter of Finish, organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
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Founded in 1951, the Birmingham Museum of Art has one of the finest collections in the Southeast. More than 25,000 objects displayed and housed within the Museum represent a rich panorama of cultures, including Asian, European, American, African, Pre-Columbian, and Native American. Highlights include the Museum’s collection of Asian art, Vietnamese ceramics, the Kress collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from the late 13th century to the 1750s, and the Museum’s world-renowned collection of Wedgwood, the largest outside of England.
