William S. Lieberman

LIEBERMAN-William S. The Trustees and staff of The Museum of Modern Art and its International Council note with sorrow the passing of our longtime friend and colleague Bill Lieberman, who began his career at MoMA in 1943 as a volunteer for Monroe Wheeler in the Department of Exhibitions and Publications. In 1945, he became assistant to Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and in 1949 he became the first curator of the Department of Prints at the time of the opening of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room. Under Bill's leadership, the department expanded to become the Department of Drawings and Prints, and in 1967 he was concurrently appointed a curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture. The Museum's curatorial departments were reorganized in 1971, and Bill became the founding director of the Department of Drawings. Bill organized over forty exhibitions at MoMA, including Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Modigliani, Etchings by Matisse, and Art of the Twenties. He left the Museum in 1979 to become Chairman of the Twentieth Century Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also became an Honorary Member of MoMA's International Council that year. Bill had an eye finely attuned to quality and elegance, and his friends formed an expansive network of artists, writers, and colleagues. Collectors with whom he was close forever enhanced the Museum's collections, perhaps most notably Florene May Schoenborn and Joan and Lester Avnet. Bill will be sorely missed, but the immeasurable impact of his thirty-six years at the Museum will be apparent for generations to come. David Rockefeller, Chairman Emeritus Agnes Gund, President Emerita Ronald S. Lauder, Chairman Robert B. Menschel, President Glenn D. Lowry, Director The Museum of Modern Art, NY Brian Urquhart, Chairman Emeritus Agnes Gund, Chairman Jo Carole Lauder, President The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art