Kirk Varnedoe, Class of 1967

You have described the history of modem art as a recurrent pattern which has “produced the broadest conceivable changes in our way of looking at and thinking about the world,” and art itself as being most powerful when “it orchestrates perplexity” and “fails to conform to what you already know.” This insight has informed your work, whether as art historian and author, as teacher and lecturer, as exhibition curator or, most especially, as director of painting and sculpture since 1988 at the Museum of Modem Art in New York City, a position which has been called “the most important job in modem art.” As director, you have broadened and rearranged the museum’s displays of painting and sculpture, creating interesting juxtapositions and arresting connections among works of art, and initiated a new series called Artist’s Choice, in which contemporary artists curate exhibitions from the museum’s holdings in conjunction with their own work. Your exhibitions at MOMA and elsewhere have been deeply researched, carefully planned, energetic, provocative, and controversial. Your inaugural exhibition as department director, “High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture,” explored the distinction and relationship between works by modern artists and comics, graffiti, caricature and advertising. Even before it opened in 1990, “High and Low’s” title alone drew strong reactions from both radical and conservative critics, but one reviewer has called the accompanying catalogue “a tour de force of research, insight, and passion that will set standards in the field.” So, too, it is safe to predict will your most recent book, A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern, the product of a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. In all of this, you have wedded vitality and fresh perspectives to a genuine love of works of art and respect for the art historical tradition—fostered, you have said, by your teachers at Williams. In recognition of your distinguished achievement as curator and art historian, Williams College is proud to present you with its Bicentennial Medal.