Schimmel Leaves as Chief Curator of Major L.A. Museum

  • Updated June 29, 2012, 10:58 p.m. ET
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    The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles said its longtime chief curator stepped down, in a high-profile shake-up to a major California museum.

    Paul Schimmel, one of the first curators to champion Los Angeles's raucous, postwar art scene, will leave the museum immediately to work as an independent curator, the museum said. No specific reason for his departure was given, and the museum said it has no plans to seek a successor.

    The timing of Mr. Schimmel's departure—on the cusp of a new fiscal year—raises questions about the museum's overall financial health and belt-tightening strategies. Over the past decade, MOCA's attendance has climbed steadily to around 400,000 annual visitors, but it has struggled to raise funds to keep pace with the costs of its exhibition program.

    Los Angeles billionaire entrepreneur Eli Broad buoyed the museum with a $30 million gift four years ago in part to stem the museum from dipping into its endowment to cover operational costs, a no-no among nonprofits. The museum confirmed its past financial woes and said it is now out of debt, sticking to its budgets, and slowly rebuilding its endowment. MOCA's endowment sits at $19.6 million, up $1.1 million from 2010.

    Mr. Schimmel's resignation has stoked curiosity about how well he got along, or not, with his boss, museum director Jeffrey Deitch. The museum caused a stir two years ago when it hired Mr. Deitch, a New York art dealer, to be its director—an unusual move in a field dominated by art scholars. Mr. Deitch and Mr. Schimmel have been known to disagree on occasion about the timing and emphasis of some exhibits. But on Friday, Mr. Deitch denied reports that he or the museum board pushed Mr. Schimmel out.

    "Paul is one of the greatest curators of our time, and we've accomplished a lot in the two years we've been working together," Mr. Deitch said in a telephone interview. "I've been supportive of his projects and acquisitions. He resigned. He was not fired."

    Mr. Schimmel declined to discuss his departure or his relationship with Mr. Deitch, but in a statement, he praised the museum for giving him "an opportunity to come of age with the institution during an exciting period in its history."

    Mr. Schimmel's departure is rattling the art world because few other curators in the contemporary-art arena are so singularly linked to the rise of their cultural institutions. Mr. Schimmel, who is in mid-50s, has overseen the museum's exhibition program for the past 22 years. He supervised at least 350 exhibits during his tenure and helped funnel over 5,000 works into its permanent collection. These include works by conceptual artists John Baldessari and Robert Gober, video artist Bruce Nauman, sculptor Charles Ray and photographer Diane Arbus.

    A transplant from New York City, he is known for creating elaborate surveys that have elevated the international reputations of local favorites like Mr. Baldessari and Mike Kelley, an installation artist who died this year. (Mr. Schimmel serves as co-director of Mr. Kelley's namesake foundation.)

    Moving forward, Mr. Deitch said he and the museum's three remaining staff curators will take over Mr. Schimmel's duties in coordinating the museum's exhibition program. The museum said its staff will also seek help from visiting curators from major museums like the Tate Modern in London.

    The museum said it plans to name a second-floor exhibition space after Mr. Schimmel in its 1983 annex, called the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

    For his part, Mr. Schimmel is expected to finish work on his latest exhibit, a show that explores themes of abstraction and decay that's already pegged to open in September. It is titled "Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962."

    Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com

    Corrections & Amplifications
    An earlier version of this story implied that the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles was founded 22 years ago, but it was founded in 1979.