name: Thomas M. Messer
birth_date: 1920-02-09 00:00:00
death_date: 2013-05-15 00:00:00
avg_rating: 4.1
ratings_count: 136
about: Thomas Maria Messer was the director of the  The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including the  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the  Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, for 27 years, a longer tenure than any other director of a major New York City arts institution.Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Messer became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in the  U.S. Army in World War II. He earned a master's degree in art history and museology from  Harvard University. From 1947 to 1961, he worked in a series of art and museum administration positions, the last of which was director of the  Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. In 1961, he became director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, he was able to esta Thomas Maria Messer was the director of the  The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including the  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the  Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, for 27 years, a longer tenure than any other director of a major New York City arts institution.Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Messer became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in the  U.S. Army in World War II. He earned a master's degree in art history and museology from  Harvard University. From 1947 to 1961, he worked in a series of art and museum administration positions, the last of which was director of the  Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. In 1961, he became director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, he was able to establish the usefulness of the spiral-shaped  Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim as a venue for the display of art, despite the doubts of critics and artists. Messer was instrumental in expanding the museum's collection during his tenure, especially by persuading  Peggy Guggenheim to donate her collection to the Guggenheim Foundation. He retired in 1988 to take up freelance curating, teaching, writing, lecturing. ...more