Thomas M. Messer

Thomas Maria Messer (February 9, 1920 – May 15, 2013) was the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, for 27 years, longer than any other director of a major New York City arts institution.

Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Messer became a U.S. citizen in 1944 and served in the U.S. Army in World War II. He earned a master's degree in art history and museology from Harvard University. From 1947 to 1961, he worked in a series of art and museum administration positions, the last of which was director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. In 1961, he became director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, he was able to establish the usefulness of the spiral-shaped Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim as a venue for the display of art, despite the doubts of critics and artists. Messer was instrumental in expanding the museum's collection during his tenure, especially by persuading Peggy Guggenheim to donate her collection to the Guggenheim Foundation. He retired in 1988 to take up freelance curating, teaching, writing, lecturing.

Early life Messer was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia and grew up in Prague. His mother came from a family of musicians, and his father was an art historian and a professor of German. He studied chemistry in Prague until September 2, 1939, when he sailed for England, but the following day England declared war with Germany, and the ship on which he was travelling, the Athenia, was torpedoed and sunk. Messer was rescued and soon travelled to the United States, where he enrolled as an exchange student at Thiel College, Greenville, Pennsylvania. He switched to the study of modern languages at Boston University, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1942.

After the war, Messer worked at the Office of Military Government, United States in Munich, Germany, studying art for the first time at the Sorbonne in Paris. which originally consisted of 73 pieces. Thannhauser's widow Hilde donated additional pieces to the museum's Thannhauser Collection in 1981 and 1991. At Messer's urging, in 1976, Peggy Guggenheim donated her art collection and home in Venice, Italy, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, to the foundation. After her death in 1979, the collection of more than 300 important works was re-opened to the public as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in 1980. Since 1985, the Guggenheim Foundation has also operated the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition held every other summer. In 1986, the Foundation purchased the Palladian-style pavilion building.

Messer served as director of the Guggenheim Foundation from 1980 to 1988.

From 1990, he was a freelance curator, teacher, writer and arts consultant. 1945–1947 Office of Military Government, United States, Munich, Germany 1947 Cours de Civilisation Française diploma from Sorbonne University, Paris, France. Return to U.S. 1948 Marriage to Remedio Garcia Villa 1949–52 Director, Roswell Museum and Art Center 1950–1951 Master of Arts in art history and museology, Harvard University (leave of absence from Roswell Museum) 1952–53 Assistant Director, American Federation of Arts 1953–55 Director of Exhibitions 1955–56 Director 1956 Consultant and Director, Time Inc. 1957–61 Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston 1960 Adjunct Professor of modern art, Harvard University 1961–88 Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1980–88 Trustee 1966, 1971 Adjunct Professor, Barnard College 1966 Senior Fellow of Center For Advanced Study, Wesleyan University 1974– Trustee, Center for Inter–American Relations (Percy R. Pyne House) 1976–78 Chair, International Exhibitions Committee 1977–80 President, MacDowell Colony 1980 Director Emeritus, Peggy Guggenheim Collection 1981–1988 Director, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 1981 Trustee, Americas Society 1988 Retired from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 1989 Appointed Director Emeritus, Guggenheim 1990–2012 Freelance curating, teaching, writing, lecturing and other work in arts and culture. n/a Writer and Trustee, Wooster School 2013 Death