Ned Rifkin Resigns as Under Secretary of Smithsonian

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ned Rifkin has resigned as the under secretary for art at the Smithsonian Institution, effective April 11. Rifkin has served in the position since 2004, most recently under Cristian Samper, the acting secretary. Rifkin's accomplishments in the position include overseeing the reopening of the Patent Office Building, which houses the Smithsonian American Art Musem and the National Portrait Gallery. Prior to his position as undersecretary, Rifkin served as the director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from 2001 to 2005 and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from 1991 to 1999. Samper has announced that rather than replace Rifkin, museums and organizations under Rifkin's jurisdiction will report to the acting under secretary for history and culture, Richard Kurin. 

SAN FRANCISCO—The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has appointed Jay Jie Xu as its new director. Xu, who takes over the position June 15, comes to the museum from the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has served as chairman of the department of Asian and Ancient Art at since 2006. He also served as a curator of Asian Art at the institute from 2003 to 2006. Before that, Xu headed the department of Asian Art and was a curator of Chinese Art at the Seattle Art Museum, where he worked from 1996 to 2003. Xu was a fellow in the department of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1994 to 1996, and an assistant curator at the Shanghai Museum from 1988 to 1990.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Museum of Women in the Arts has promoted its chief curator and deputy director Susan Fisher Sterling to director of the museum, Artforum.com reports. Sterling, who took over the position March 7, has been with the museum for almost two decades. In addition, she attended the Museum Leadership Institute at the Getty. Her accolades include receiving the Royal Order of Merit from the government of Norway and the Order de Rio Branco for cultural diplomacy from the Republic of Brazil.

OSLO, Norway—The auction house Bonhams has appointed Pascal Nyborg as its representative in Norway. Nyborg is best known for his work as a fine art broker and valuation expert. Born in Paris and raised in Bergen, Nyborg did graduate work at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London and opened the art gallery Nyborg Kunst in Oslo in 1998. He also served as an expert in 19th Century European art at Christie’s New York and the head of the painting department at Blomqvist, Norway’s leading auction house.

Farewells
WASHINGTON, D.C.—British curator and art historian Philip Conisbee died January 16 at the age of 62, the Guardian reports. Conisbee was the senior curator of European paintings at the National Gallery of Art since 1998, where he created such exhibitions as  "Cezanne in Provence" (2006) and "The Age of Watteau, Chardin and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting" (1999). He also put together, with the help of colleagues from the National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the international loan exhibition, "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch" (1999), which was the largest display of the artist's works ever presented outside of France. Before the National Gallery, Conisbee served as a curator at both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. He was born in Belfast and grew up in London. In 2004, he was honored with an award as a Knight in the French order the Legion of Honor.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The "doyenne of Washington portraitists" Kitti von Kann died March 3 at the age of 91, the Washington Post reports. Kann's portraits were "virtually a who's who of the city," according to the Post, immortalizing the likes of Claire Booth Luce; Anna Chennault; Sen. Barry Goldwater and his family; Alma Powell, the wife of Colin Powell; Helga Orfila; and Baron Constantine Stackelberg. She mostly worked from life but also used photographs to paint famous Republicans for the Capitol Hill Club, including Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush. Von Kann was born in Fayetteville, N.C. Her portraits are in private collections and public collections including the American Newswomen's Club, the Chennault Collection at Louisiana State University, the National Federation of Republican Women headquarters and various government agencies.