Bonnie Clearwater - Flickr - Knight Foundation

Bonnie Clearwater (born 1957) is an American writer and art historian. She is the director and chief

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of Nova Southeastern University's

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale The NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is an art museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Originating in 1958 as the Fort Lauderdale Art Center, the museum is now located in an modernist building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The current building wa ...

. Previously, Clearwater was the director and chief curator of Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. She has a particular interest in the work of

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

. Clearwater studied art history at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

then attended graduate school at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where she studied modern and medieval art, graduating with a master's degree in the late '70s. Clearwater went on to be personal curator for

Leonard Lauder Leonard Alan Lauder (March 19, 1933 – June 14, 2025) was an American billionaire, philanthropist, and art collector. Together, he and his brother, Ronald Lauder, were the sole heirs to The Estée Lauder Companies cosmetics fortune, founded by ...

for six years while she then curated the Rothko Foundation in New York City from 1980, and she was then the program director of the

Lannan Foundation The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

in Los Angeles from January 1986. In the early '90s, she moved to Miami where she saw potential for an exciting, emerging art scene. Clearwater became head curator of the MOCA North Miami in 1994, and programs director in 1997.A Director With an Eye For the Fresh and the Local
" (12 March 2008). ''The New York Times'' In 2007 she curated the Albanian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Some of Clearwater's publications include "The Rothko Book: Tate Essential Artist Series," "Julian Schnabel: Versions of Chuck," and "Roberto Juarez: A Sense of Place."List of Books by Bonnie Clearwater at Amazon.com
/ref> Clearwater is originally from

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state's ...

, N.Y. She is married to Jim Clearwater, who runs the art-book publishing company Grassfield Press.

References

External links

*
also in Spanish
* (requires

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...

) * * (MP4 video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Clearwater, Bonnie 1957 births Living people American art historians American art curators American women curators Writers from Miami Directors of museums in the United States American women museum directors Historians from New York (state) American women art historians People from Rockland County, New York Columbia University alumni New York University alumni Historians from Florida 21st-century American women