Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Office of the Director.

Art museum director, educator, and patron of the arts, James Johnson Sweeney was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 30, 1900 and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and at the Sorbonne. He was Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (1945-1946) and subsequently Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1952-1960) prior to the commencement of his tenure as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1961. A determined advocate of modern art, Sweeney organized major exhibitions and authored books, essays, reviews, and articles which fostered greater interest in twentieth-century art among the American public. He died on April 14, 1986.