The Art Institute of Chicago President and Eloise W. Martin Director James Rondeau announced today the appointment of Kevin Salatino as the new Anne Vogt Fuller and Marion Titus Searle Chair and Curator of Prints and Drawings. Salatino most recently served as Director of the Art Collections at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California (2012-2017), where he oversaw and strengthened its extensive holdings of British and Continental paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper from the 17th to the 20th centuries—as well as noteworthy holdings in American paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper from the 18th through the 20th century. During his tenure, he ushered in a powerful period of growth including two major expansions of the American galleries, and led the evolution of The Huntington’s Art Collections to comprise one of the largest displays of American art west of the Mississippi. 

Salatino will lead the Art Institute of Chicago’s internationally respected Department of Prints and Drawings which houses a distinguished collection of works on paper ranging in date from the 15th century to the present. With holdings of more than 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, the collection includes particular strengths in French 19th-century works; British, French, and Italian drawings; Old Master prints; extensive 20th-century holdings; and a constantly expanding collection of contemporary works on paper.

In making the appointment, Rondeau said: “Kevin has outstanding curatorial credentials and an international reputation for thoughtfully expanding art collections through significant and savvy acquisitions and major gifts. I am thrilled he will take on this important position in our museum and join our ambitious efforts to expand the Art Institute’s global renown and relevance through our exhibitions, scholarship, and innovative visitor experiences.”

Earlier in his career, Salatino led the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (Brunswick, Maine) as Director from 2009-2012, served as Curator and Head of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2000-2009), and held an appointment as Curator of Graphic Arts at the Getty Research Institute (1991-2000).

Salatino has lectured and published widely on subjects as diverse as fireworks (Incendiary Art: The Representation of Fireworks in Early Modern Europe, published in a revised and expanded French edition in 2015 – Art incendiaire: La représentation des feux d’artifice en Europe au début des Temps modernes), Fra Angelico (the subject of his dissertation), the erotic drawings of Henry Fuseli, the European Grand Tour, Goya, James Ensor (Doctrinal Nourishment: Art and Anarchy in the Time of James Ensor), George Bellows, and Richard Pousette-Dart (Richard Pousette-Dart: Transparent Reflections), among others. Recent publications include Alex Israel at the Huntington (2016), Blue Boy and Co.: European Art at the Huntington (2015) (a winner of Design Observer Group’s 2015 best book design award), William Wegman: Hello Nature (2012), and Edward Hopper’s Maine (2011).

Salatino has also taught at Middlebury College and the University of Pennsylvania and he earned his AB from Columbia University and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.