Elmer Arthur Carmean Jr. (January 25, 1945 – October 12, 2019) was an American

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

and

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 ...

. Carmean focused his studies on twentieth-century

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

and

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

in art. Later in his career, he became an Episcopal

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

Museum career

Born to E.A. Carmean Sr. and Helen Marker in Springfield, Carmean graduated from

MacMurray College MacMurray College was a private college in Jacksonville, Illinois, United States. Its enrollment in fall 2015 was 570. Founded in 1846, the college closed in May 2020. History Although founded in 1846 by a group of Methodist clergymen as the ...

in 1967 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Art History Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

. He then went on to do graduate work until 1970 at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in Art History, but did not graduate. Carmean, a specialist on twentieth-century American and European

in art, joined the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

as Curator of Twentieth-Century Art in the year of his graduation, when the museum was led by

Philippe de Montebello Philippe de Montebello (born May 16, 1936 in Paris) is a French and American museum director. He served from 1977 to 2008 as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On his retirement, he was both the longest-serving dir ...

. Carmean was then hired at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

in 1974, when under the directorship of J. Carter Brown. Carmean was the founding curator of its Department of Twentieth-Century Art. Four years later, he was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. In 1984, Carmean became director of the Modern Art Museum of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, and in 1992, the director of the

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an art museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Brooks Museum, which was founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in ...

for a span of five years.

Canonical career

In 1998, Carmean decided to leave the museum world and study at the

Memphis Theological Seminary Memphis Theological Seminary is an ecumenical seminary of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Although it is affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, it accepts and trains ministerial candidates from other denomi ...

. In 2002, he joined St. George’s Episcopal Church in Germantown, and three years later, was appointed a

lay canon Canon () is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of ...

. Married three times with one daughter, Elizabeth Carmean Adams, Carmean died at the age of seventy-four from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

References

External links

National Gallery of Art obituary
1945 births 2019 deaths American art historians Writers from Springfield, Illinois Directors of museums in the United States American Episcopal clergy MacMurray College alumni Memphis Theological Seminary alumni Museum of Fine Arts, Houston National Gallery of Art Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. {{US-art-historian-stub

Museum career

Canonical career

See also

References

External links