Anne D'Harnoncourt Dies Unexpectedly at 64

PITTSBURGH, Pa.—The Carnegie Museum of Art has announced that director Richard Armstrong will retire at the end of the year. Armstrong first joined the museum in 1992 as curator of contemporary art, was promoted to chief curator in 1995, and became the institution's director in 1996. During his 12 years as the museum's helm, he oversaw extensive renovations to the museum galleries, bolstered the contemporary collection, and guided the acquisition of the Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive, a collection of over 80,000 negatives by the photographer of Pittsburgh's African-American community. Before working at the Carnegie, Armstrong held positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art in California.

SEATTLE—Mimi Gates will retire as director of the Seattle Art Museum on July 1, 2009. Gates has led the museum since 1994, overseeing the expansion of its downtown building, the creation of the Olympic Sculpture Park, and the near doubling of its membership. She helped transform the institution's endowment from one of the smallest among museums in the country to roughly $113 million. Prior to her work at SAM, Gates worked at the Yale University Art Gallery for nineteen years, serving as the director for seven and a half. She is a former president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and chaired the Federal Indemnity panel at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1999 to 2002. 

LONDON—The National Gallery has announced that Mark Getty will become the chairman of the board of trustees on August 11, serving for three years. Getty, the co-founder and chairman of Getty Images, has been a trustee of the gallery since 1999. He will take over for Peter Scott, who has served as the chairman of the gallery's board since 2000 and has been a trustee for nine years. Getty previously worked at Kidder Peabody in New York and Hambros Bank Ltd. in London.

MINNEAPOLIS—The Walker Art Center has announced two executive-level promotions, as well as the creation of an audience engagement and communications team, effective July 1. Christopher Stevens, current development director, has been promoted to chief of finance and development, overseeing finance, fund-raising, special projects, and governmental relations. Phillip Bahar, present director of marketing and public relations, has been promoted to chief of operations and administration, wherein he will oversee human resources, facility operations, marketing, public relations, and other areas. The new audience engagement and communications team will be headed by Robin Dowden, the center's director of new-media initiatives.

Farewells
MOUNT KISCO, N.Y.—Art dealer Klaus Perls died on June 2 at the age of 96. Perls was born in Berlin to art dealer parents and moved in 1935 to New York, where he opened his own gallery, Perls Galleries. In 1940 he married Amelia Blumenthal, who became his gallery partner. The two dealt primarily in modern art from the School of Paris, but also represented notable American artists like Alexander Calder. The Perls also built an important collection of art from Benin, of which they gave 153 pieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1991. In 1996, they donated 13 works by Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, and other 20th-century artists to the Met as well. Perls Galleries closed in 1997, and Amelia Perls died in 2002.

PETALUMA, Calif.—Alton Kelley, a psychedelic artist whose work helped shape the the 1960s San Francisco rock scene, died on June 1 from complications of osteoporosis. He was 67. Kelley, along with his artistic collaborator Stanley Mouse, originated the skull-and-roses emblem for the Grateful Dead and created hundreds of psychedelic rock posters for shows at the Avalon Ballroom, where a group that he was part of, Family Dog, held psychedelic concerts with light and dance shows. He designed album art for the Grateful Dead, the Steve Miller Band, and Journey, and was named by Life magazine in 1967 as a seminal poster artist of the era. Most recently, Kelley and Mouse collaborated on the cover for the program for this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.