Down with DaVinci [curator at SFMONA resigns]

 Might  San  Francisco Museum of Modern Art  or other museums exclude works by   white male artist  DaVinci?  Who gave the world Mona Lisa?  

An art museum curator has resigned from his post at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art after outraging members of his staff by refusing to exclude white male artists.

Gary Garrels, the senior curator of painting and sculpture, was the target of a petition that garnered just over 250 signatures this month demanding that he resign after he refused to exclude white male artists.

The petition stated that Garrels offended many members of the staff by mentioning that the museum would “definitely still continue to collect white artists” during a presentation about diversifying collection efforts to include more work from nonwhite artists.

During his tenure at SFMOMA, Garrels organized early museum shows by Glenn Ligon, Doris Salcedo, and Kara Walker, as well as retrospectives of the work of Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, and Sol LeWitt. But his lasting legacy at SFMOMA may be tied to two very different initiatives: the museumâ€s extended loan deal of the Fisher Collection and its decision, last year, to auction off a painting by Mark Rothko for $50.1 million in order to create a dedicated fund to acquire work by female artists, artists of color, and LGBTQ+ artists. Works that have been acquired using the fund include pieces by Rebecca Belmore, Forrest Bess, Frank Bowling, Leonora Carrington, Lygia Clark, and Norman Lewis.

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Firenze Sage:     And how many museums would black art fill?