Sweeney, James Johnson, 1900-1986

James Johnson Sweeney, 1900-1986.

Art administrator.

James Johnson Sweeney served as Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (1945-1946), Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1952-1960), and Director of Museum of Fine Arts Houston (1961-1967). Sweeney also independently curated exhibitions for MoMA before, during, and after his tenure as director.

James Johnson Sweeney assumed the directorship (1961-1967) of the MFAH in 1961 under a five year contract that was extended an additional year. As a condition of his employment, a director's acquisition fund was established with which he acquired significant works of contemporary art. Known for his innovative installation techniques -- he used rods to project paintings from the wall at the Guggenheim -- Sweeney utilized the new Cullinan Hall to its best advantage by suspending canvases on wires from the ceiling.

Sweeney collected heavily in the art of the Americas, adding hundreds of North American and MesoAmerican pieces to the museum's collection, and even enlisted Brown & Root to construct a road into the Mexican rainforests so that a sixteen-ton Olmec Head could be displayed on the lawn of the MFAH before finding a permanent home at the new Mexican National Museum of Anthropology. During his tenure he persuaded his longtime colleague, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, to create detailed drawings for the planned second phase of additions to the museum that became the Brown Pavilion.

In the year following his departure from the MFAH, Sweeney continued to work as a consultant to supervise the architectural planning process for the museum. During the 1970s he acted as interim director of the National Gallery in Canberra, chaired the executive committee of the Israel Museum, became president of the International Association of Art Critics, and served as an advisory editor for Partisan Review. He also continued a lifelong career in art criticism, completing a book on Chillida shortly before his death in 1986.

Prior to his association with the MFAH, Sweeney had served as Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (1945-46), and as the first professional Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1952-1960).

Born in Brooklyn in 1900 to an Irish-American textile-importing family, Sweeney maintained close ties to Europe throughout his life, residing in Ireland and Paris during intermittent periods. He earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in 1922, and for two years thereafter, he did graduate work in literature at Jesus College, Cambridge University. He then studied for one year each at the Sorbonne and the University of Sienna.

Art administrator; Houston, Texas.

Director of the Guggenheim Museum, N.Y.C., and of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.