Contemporary Art Luminary Dies
by Michael H. Hodges / Detroit News Arts Writer
DETROIT - Jan van der Marck, Detroit Institute of Arts chief curator until 1995 and a looming figure in the study of contemporary art, died Monday after a long battle with cancer. The Huntington Woods resident was born in 1929.
Van der Marck came to Detroit in 1986 as curator of 20th century art. Among his shows was the 1995 "Interventions," a major exhibition of Metro Detroit artists. He was subsequently promoted to chief curator.
"Jan was exploratory and innovative," says Samuel Sachs II, the DIA director from 1985 to 1997, who hired him. "And I was very keen to position the DIA firmly in contemporary art. Jan had a remarkable eye and judgment, and was widely admired not only in Detroit, but across the United States and beyond."
Van der Marck, who was raised in the Netherlands and always retained a soft Dutch accent, worked at a range of U.S. institutions. He launched his curatorial career in the early 1960s at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and then became founding director of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. In the late 1970s, he was founding director of Miami's Center for Fine Arts.
In Chicago, van der Marck befriended and supported superstars-to-be, among them artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude -- relatively unknown in the U.S. at the time -- and let them wrap his Chicago museum in 10,000 square feet of canvas. He also worked with them on "Running Fence" and "Surrounding Islands."
Michael Kan, former DIA curator for African, Oceanic and New World art, says his friend was a champion of European post-war art at a time when Americans dominated the field. Kan also calls van der Marck "European to the core" -- courtly, intellectual, and fond of fine wine and chamber music.
Van der Marck is survived by his wife, Sheila.