NEW YORK, NY.- Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, today announced that Donna De Salvo has decided to leave her current post as Deputy Director for International Initiatives and Senior Curator, effective July 1, 2019, to pursue other interests. She most recently organized the critically acclaimed and immensely popular exhibition Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again, which premiered at the Whitney in November 2018, is currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago in October 2019. De Salvo also led the Whitney’s curatorial team for America Is Hard to See (2015), the inaugural exhibition in the Museum’s downtown site, and was instrumental in the design of the new building. She will continue as consulting curator overseeing the Warhol exhibition throughout the duration of its tour.

Weinberg stated, “Donna De Salvo has played an indispensable role in helping to set the foundations for the Whitney as it now exists. Her contributions are reflected in the roster of exhibitions that bear the stamp of her unique take on art and culture, major works acquired under her inspired stewardship of the collection, and the artist-centric galleries of the downtown building. We will always be grateful for the extraordinary breadth of knowledge and the keen insights she has brought to this institution, and we wish her the best as she embarks on the next phase of her career.”

Donna De Salvo said, “I hold a deep regard for the Whitney, which has been my home for one of the most fulfilling periods of my career. I joined the Whitney to work with Adam Weinberg and his team, to imagine and help realize a new home for the museum, and to expand understanding of what art in the United States is and can be. It has been an enormous privilege to collaborate with extraordinary artists, trustees, and colleagues and to have overseen the curatorial direction of the Whitney during one of the most transformative periods of the institution’s history.”

Donna De Salvo joined the Whitney in 2004 and served as its first Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs from 2006 to 2015 before assuming her present role of Deputy Director for International Initiatives and Senior Curator. In addition to curating Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again (assisted by Christie Mitchell and Mark Loiacono) and leading the team for America Is Hard To See, 2015, De Salvo has curated or co-curated the exhibitions: Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium (2017, with Lynn Zelevansky, Elisabeth Sussman, and James Rondeau), Open Plan: Steve McQueen (2015), Open Plan: Michael Heizer (2015, with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro), Barbara Kruger: On Site (2010), Robert Irwin: Scrim veil—Black rectangle—Natural light, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1977) (2013), Sinister Pop (2012–13, with Scott Rothkopf), Signs & Symbols (2012, assisted by Jane Panetta), Lawrence Weiner: AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE (2007–2008, with Ann Goldstein), Roni Horn aka Roni Horn (2009–2010, with Carter Foster and Mark Godfrey), and Full House: The Whitney's Collection at 75 (2006, with Carter Foster, Barbara Haskell, Henriette Huldisch, and Dana Miller). With Linda Norden, she co-curated Course of Empire: Paintings by Ed Ruscha for the United States Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale, an exhibition that was also presented at the Whitney (2005–2006).

During her tenure at the Whitney, she has helped to acquire the work of numerous artists, including: Nina Chanel Abney, Emma Amos, Richard Artschwager, Lutz Bacher, Lynda Benglis, Carol Bove, Carolina Caycedo, Paul Chan, Ed Clark, Bruce Conner, Allan D’Arcangelo, Rosalyn Drexler, Carroll Dunham, Melvin Edwards, Andrea Fraser, Ellen Gallagher, Wade Guyton, Hans Haacke, Rachel Harrison, Barkley L. Hendricks, Carmen Herrera, Jacqueline Humphries, On Kawara, Josh Kline, Norman Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Nick Mauss, Park McArthur, Archibald Motley, Bruce Nauman, Senga Nengudi, Ken Okiishi, Laura Owens, Steven Parrino, Ed Ruscha, Avery Singer, Sylvia Sleigh, Nancy Spero, Frances Stark, Rudolf Stingel, Hank Willis Thomas, Kay WalkingStick, John Wesley, Jack Whitten, and Anicka Yi, among many others.

Prior to working at the Whitney, De Salvo served for five years as a Senior Curator at Tate Modern, London, where she curated such exhibitions as Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970 (2005), Giorgio Morandi (2002, with Matthew Gale), and Anish Kapoor: Marysas, The Unilever Series (2002), and was on the curatorial team for Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (2001). She also served as the first curator for the American Acquisition Committee (now North American Acquisitions Committee.)

Among the exhibitions she has curated at other institutions are Hand-Painted Pop: American Art in Transition, 1955–1962 (MOCA Los Angeles, 1992–1993), Ray Johnson: Correspondences (Wexner Center for the Arts, 1999), Staging Surrealism (Wexner Center for the Arts, 1997), and A Museum Looks at Itself: Mapping Past and Present at the Parrish Art Museum (Parrish Art Museum, 1992).

From 1981 to 1986, De Salvo was a curator at the Dia Art Foundation, where she worked closely with several of its artists, including John Chamberlain, Walter De Maria, Donald Judd, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol.

A noted expert on the work of Andy Warhol, she was adjunct curator for the Andy Warhol Museum and was curator of Andy Warhol: Disaster Paintings, 1963 (Dia Art Foundation, 1986), Andy Warhol: Hand-Painted Images, 1960–62 (Dia Art Foundation, 1987), "Success is a Job in New York": The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol (Grey Art Gallery, 1989), and a retrospective of the artist’s work at Tate Modern (2002).

De Salvo has written catalogues and essays and lectured on a wide range of modern and contemporary artists and topics, including Barbara Bloom, Lee Bontecou, John Chamberlain, William Eggleston, Isa Genzken, Robert Gober, Philip Guston, Wade Guyton, Anish Kapoor, Per Kirkeby, Barbara Kruger, Steve McQueen, Barnett Newman, Chris Ofili, Gerhard Richter, Robert Smithson, Cy Twombly, Mark Wallinger, and Gillian Wearing. A recipient of the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award from the College Art Association, she has participated in numerous international juries and review panels and in curatorial studies programs at Bard College and the Royal College of Art. Currently, De Salvo serves on the 2nd Academic Committee of the Power Station for Art in Shanghai, is a member of the International Biennial Association, CIMAM, and sits on the jury for The Sotheby’s Prize.