Douglas Druick, a 26-year veteran curator and department chair at the Art Institute of Chicago, was named its new president and director on Wed.

An internationally recognized scholar and curator, Druick has worked as the interim president and director of the museum since the sudden departure of James Cuno in June 2011 to head the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.

“Douglas is one of the leading curators in the world, and his contributions over more than two decades have been immeasurably important to the development and presentations of the collections as well as the exhibitions at the museum,” said Tom Pritzker, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Druick, 66, received his PhD from Yale in 1979. He came from the National Gallery of Canada to the Art Institute in 1985 as the Chair and Prince Trust Curator of Prints and Drawings. Four years later, in 1989, he also became the Searle Curator of European Painting at the Art Institute. In 2006, while remaining the Chair of the Department of Prints and Drawings, he was named the
Chair of the Department of Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture, the department that includes the Art Institute’s renowned Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modern collections.

"I have served this institution for more than two decades because I have the greatest respect for
it and believe it to be one of the finest museums in the world," stated Druick. "To now be asked to lead the Art Institute is a great privilege.”

Along with 15 published exhibition catalogs and an international lecture circuit, Druick has organized or contributed to a number of monumental exhibitions at the museum, including three that were named outstanding exhibitions by the Association of Art Museum Curators: Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte, Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, and Jasper Johns: Gray.