The Museum of Modern Art appoints Jodi Hauptman as The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints

NEW YORK, NY.— The Museum of Modern Art announced the appointment of Jodi Hauptman as The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints following a comprehensive search by the Museum in partnership with search firm Russell Reynolds. In this role, Hauptman will guide all aspects of the department’s wide ranging program, from exhibitions and publications, to acquisitions and research, to The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Study Center—a collection of more than 70,000 drawings, prints, illustrated books, multiples, and ephemera that has been central to MoMA since its founding.

“Jodi is a curator of uncommon clarity and imagination,” said Christophe Cherix, The David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art. “Her exhibitions and publications have changed how we look at works on paper, and as The Robert Lehman Chief Curator she will deepen the strength of MoMA’s collection while empowering audiences to connect intimately with art and artists, think more broadly, and discover new connections.”

“I am honored to take on this new role at this pivotal moment,” said Hauptman. “I look forward to sharing the Museum’s unparalleled collection, collaborating with exceptional colleagues, and illuminating modern and contemporary artists’ innovative, radically experimental, and deeply formative practices on paper—encouraging close looking and inspiring wonder in the infinite possibilities of drawings, prints, books, multiples, and much more.”

Hauptman most recently served as The Richard Roth Senior Curator in MoMA’s Department of Drawings and Prints. Her acclaimed exhibitions—including Cézanne Drawing; Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented; Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty; Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs; Georges Seurat: The Drawings; and this year’s Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers—have illuminated the crucial role of works on paper in modern and contemporary art, revealing fascinating new aspects of an artist’s practice and often providing the essential key to understanding their work more broadly.

Hauptman has authored and co-edited numerous award-winning publications and has partnered with colleagues in MoMA’s David Booth Conservation Department on field- shaping technical research. She has contributed to acquisition initiatives that have been transformative for the Museum’s collection, including the avant-garde works of the Merrill C. Berman Collection—with numerous artists represented at MoMA for the first time—and, this year, an extraordinary gift of drawings and paintings by Paul Cézanne from the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation. Hauptman holds a doctorate in art history from Yale University and earned her A.B. from Princeton University. She was a 2018 Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership.