Jan van der Marck (19 August 1929 – 26 April 2010) was a Dutch-born American museum administrator, art historian, and curator, focused on modern and contemporary art.[1] Van der Marck authored and published many essays, articles and books about artists and art.[2]
He was born in Roermond, Netherlands, on August 19, 1929, to a family in the printing and publishing businesses.[1] He attended Radboud University Nijmegen and received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1956, and his thesis was on 19th-century Belgian book illustration.[1][3]
He was the founding director of Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 1967,[5] where he hosted Dan Flavin's first major museum exhibition.[1][6] In 1969, van der Marck hosted the exhibition Art by Telephone, where artists would call in the instructions on how to build and display their artwork.[7] While he was in Chicago, van der Marck invited two unknown artists at the time, Christo and Jeanne-Claude to wrap the museum building in canvas.[1][8] After the wrapping of the building in canvas, he resigned from his position.[1]
In 1974, he joined the Hood Museum of Art (previously called Hopkins Center Art Galleries) as the director and he taught courses at Dartmouth College.[9] He caused a controversy by placing an oversized sculpture X-Delta by Mark di Suvero in the middle of a highly trafficked part of campus.[9]
In 1983, at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (previously called Center for the Fine Arts in Miami) van der Marck invited Christo and Jeanne-Claude to wrap 11 islands in Biscayne Bay in pink fabric, later named Surrounded Islands.[1][10] Van der Marck also worked with Christo and Jeanne-Claude on the work Running Fence in 1976.[6]
Van der Marck was the chief curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) from 1986 until 1995.[6] In 1995, van der Marck was fired from his role due to a residency violation, he was required to live in Detroit and he was spending significant time in Huntington Woods instead.[6][11]
He died of cancer on April 26, 2010, in Huntington Woods, Michigan, at the age of 80.[1][12]
Personal life
He married Ingeborg Lachmann in 1961; she died in 1988. His second wife was Sheila van der Marck, née Stamell.[1]