The story of modern art as we know it has been written in no small part by Ann Temkin. The chief curator of painting and sculpture at New York’s Museum of Modern Art for almost two decades, Temkin most recently organized its wildly ambitious exhibition of Marcel Duchamp.
What are you looking forward to this year?
The Marcel Duchamp exhibition is something my colleagues and I have been preparing for five years. And no matter how much you plan, there is no way of predicting what it will be like to see the works that have been living in your head come together in real life.
What do you think is your biggest contribution to culture?
Connecting art and people. Most simply, opening the heart or mind of any viewer. And if we’re doing our jobs well, the work that we decide to display at our museums will play an important role in shaping the artists of tomorrow.
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
“Rolywholyover A Circus,” a touring exhibition organized by John Cage. I oversaw its presentation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1995. Among its many wonders, the art handlers repositioned the works each day according to a computer program based on the I Ching. It proved that the beauty of chance can be every bit as powerful as that of control. And that a show can be a work of art in and of itself.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
Is each artwork as vocal as it can be? In the space it’s in, with the neighbors it has? Will one more shift transform the room?
What grounds you, and what invigorates you?
Swimming.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
