Brown, Former National Gallery Director, Dies at 67

The Washington Post ^ | Tuesday, June 18, 2002 | Bart Barnes

[monkey]

J. Carter Brown, 67, a master impresario, creative showman and energetic fundraiser who in 23 years as director of Washington's National Gallery of Art elevated the museum's profile, enhanced its appeal and broadened its mission, died of cancer Monday at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, his family said in a statement.

[monkey]

Carter Brown (of the Brown University family) was a giant of the American art world. Patrician and jarringly pompous, but completely genuine, he did the things only an aristocrat could do. Listening to him on tape was better than a Merchant-Ivory film festival.

With him to Cambridge, he brought a Matisse drawing and a Cezanne watercolor to hang on the walls of his dormitory bedroom.

[x]

Listening to him on tape was better than a Merchant-Ivory film festival.

I remember hearing him on tape -- very informative and entertaining. It's hard now to believe he was that old. Or dead. Phillipe de Montebello of the Met could be old, short, vile and ugly, but the voice creates its own suave image.

For all the wars around art, subsidies and the NEA, the National Gallery, founded -- and I believe still largely funded -- by private donations, hasn't been such a bad thing.

At least it saved people like J. Carter from politics and other vices.

[strictlyaminorleaguer]

The Washington landscape won't be the same without J. Carter Brown. Not only did he make the National Gallery of Art the force it is today in the art world, but most recently, he fought for the WWII memorial to remain on the Mall despite criticism from many quarters. He himself said it best: " When the World War II memorial is completed, and future generations have absorbed it as part of their Washington experience, it will be greatly loved."
May he rest in peace.