Richard Brettell

Richard Robson "Rick" Brettell (January 17, 1949 – July 24, 2020) was an American art historian and museum director recognized for his transformative impact on the arts in Dallas, Texas. Noted for his prowess as a curator, fundraiser, and institution-builder, he was hailed in the Dallas Morning News as a "rainmaker extraordinaire"

Brettell moved to Dallas in 1988 to become the Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, a position he held until 1992. He would later join the faculty of the University of Texas at Dallas, where he served as Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetic Studies and inaugural director of the Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History. During his time at UT Dallas, Brettell spearheaded the university's successful efforts to acquire the Barrett Collection of Swiss Art and the Crow Collection of Asian Art. The Crow Collection is now housed both at the downtown Dallas location, and at the Athenaeum at UT Dallas, which features a reading room named for Brettell that displays his personal library. At the time of his death in 2020, Brettell was campaigning for the creation of the "Museum of Texas Art"—or MoTA—at Dallas' art deco Fair Park.

For his achievements, Brettell was made a Chevalier and Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the namesake for the Richard Brettell Award in the Arts at UT Dallas, as well as the Dallas Museum of Art's Richard R. Brettell Lecture Series on 19th and 20th century European art.

Brettell also recorded three courses on art for the Teaching Company, an educational streaming service.

Early life and education

Brettell was born in Rochester, New York and moved to Denver, Colorado in the 2nd grade.

Early career In 1976, Brettell accepted an offer to join the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor of the History of Art. He quickly became a student favorite for his engaging lectures

In 1980, Brettell left academia to become the Searle Curator of European Painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. He oversaw the renovation of the institute's European art collection and organized numerous international exhibitions, including A Day in the Country, Impressionism and the French Landscape, for which he would be designated a Chevalier of the Ordre des Artes et Lettres by the French government. —D Magazine ran a lengthy article on his first two years at the museum with the heading "Art's Bad Boy."

Brettell remained open to a long future at the DMA, telling D Magazine in 1990, "It's possible I'll be here ten years. It's possible I'll be here the rest of my life. I can't not see things through." The sting and the media's reporting on Brettell's arrest were criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, D Magazine, and the Dallas Observer.

Though ousted, Brettell continued to be actively involved with the DMA, consulting on the Hamon wing, which opened in 1993. The following year he founded the university's Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Museums.

Alongside his academic work, Brettell worked as an art critic for the Dallas Morning News and founded and led the French Regional and American Museum Exchange (FRAME). In 2016, Margaret McDermott made a gift to UT Dallas to establish the Richard Brettell Award in the Arts, a $150,000 award to be given every other year to a person "whose body of work demonstrates a lifetime of achievement in their field." In 2017, the first Brettell Award went to celebrated landscape architect Peter Walker.

Final Years, the Athenaeum, and MoTA Brettell's final years were marked by further writing, organization, and advocacy for the arts in North Texas. He was credited with helping UT Dallas, a university founded on the model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, develop a burgeoning reputation as a center for the study of the arts. With his help, the university succeeded in acquiring the Barrett Collection of Swiss Art in 2018 and the Crow Collection of Asian Art in 2019. As of 2021, UT Dallas plans to house both collections in the future UT Dallas Athenaeum, a Morphosis-designed museum and arts complex described as Brettell's "magnum opus." The university has announced that a reading room in the museum will be named for Brettell. In June 2020, the board of Fair Park First, the nonprofit corporation that manages Fair Park, voted 12–0 to pass on the MoTA proposal to instead pursue occupancy negotiations with Spark!, a nonprofit that designs creative environments for children. Brettell told the Dallas Morning News that he was "devastated" by the decision, arguing that, "The former DMFA building cries out to be filled with works of art again."

Legacy Brettell's death in July 2020 was met with various tributes, including a front-page story in the Dallas Morning News. Commentary on his legacy centered on his abilities as a scholar, fundraiser, and institution-builder, highlighting his stature as a "towering figure" who revolutionized the arts in North Texas between the late 1980s and 2020.