William John (Jack) Cowart III (February 7, 1945- ) was born in Fort Riley, Kansas. He attended the Haverford school system for his primary education. In 1976 Cowart graduated Virginia Military Institute with a Bachelor of Art in History. From 1969-1971 he lived in France with his wife Susan completing the European research for his doctoral paper. His dissertation, "'Ecoliers' to 'fauvres, ' Matisse, Marquet, and Manguin drawings: 1890-1906," was submitted to Johns Hopkins University in May 1972. Cowart then worked as an Assistant Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut organizing a series of small shows. Following this position, he worked as a Curator at the St. Louis Art Museum from which he organized, as well as John Hallmark Neff of the Detroit Institute of the Arts and major contributions from poet Dominique Fourcade and associate professor of art history at Brooklyn College Jack D. Flam, the exhibition Matisse: The Cut-Outs. He was also instrumental in the exhibition's catalog which recieved the Art Library Society Award for excellence in art history in 1977. In 1983 Cowart joined the National Gallery of Art as an Assistant Curator and in 1984 became Curator of 20th Century Art taking over from E.A. Carmean. During his time at the National Gallery of Art Cowart was instrumental in acquiring additional work for the museum including the Meyeroff Collection.
From the description of Jack Cowart Papers 1969-1991. (Baltimore Museum of Art Library). WorldCat record id: 712789720
