Ann Temkin, who has served as the chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) since 2008, will step down from the position in January after an 18-year tenure. The museum announced on Monday that while Temkin will relinquish her leadership role in the department, she will remain at MoMA in a newly created advisory capacity, focusing on programming for the institution’s 100th anniversary in 2029.

Temkin’s career at MoMA spans over four decades, beginning in 1984 as a curatorial assistant before rising through the ranks. She was the first woman to lead MoMA’s painting and sculpture department, widely regarded as the museum’s most prominent curatorial division. Her tenure marked a significant shift in how MoMA approached the presentation and interpretation of modern and contemporary art. Moving away from a traditional, linear narration of art history, Temkin helped spearhead an integrative approach that blurred the boundaries between painting, sculpture, photography, film, and design.

Under her leadership, MoMA expanded its scope to include a more global and diverse array of artists, introducing works from Latin American, Asian, and African creators alongside the museum’s established European and North American modernist collections. This philosophy was most prominently realized with the opening of MoMA’s expanded building in 2019, which implemented a dynamic and more fluid gallery arrangement, juxtaposing canonical paintings by Cézanne and Van Gogh with works such as Faith Ringgold’s racially charged “American People Series #50: Die” and pieces by abstractionists from Latin America.

Temkin curated numerous exhibitions that received critical attention, including “Color Chart” (2008), a study of modern artists’ unconventional use of color; “Picasso Sculpture” (2015), which transformed the museum galleries into a showcase of Picasso’s sculptural work; and “Judd” (2020), focusing on Donald Judd’s precise wood and steel objects. Her curatorial work combined rigorous scholarship with a subtle inflection of humor, exemplified by her thoughtful pairing of Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s experimental “Telephone Pictures” with an actual Bauhaus-designed telephone.

One of her most notable recent projects was the museum’s first comprehensive survey of Marcel Duchamp’s art in 50 years, which received a mixed response from audiences and critics alike. After its run at MoMA, the exhibition is scheduled to travel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Temkin began her curatorial career.

Temkin’s departure comes amid lingering questions about MoMA’s retirement policy, which traditionally required senior leaders to step down at age 65. While the policy technically remains in effect, exceptions have been made in recent years, such as the extended tenure of MoMA’s director Glenn D. Lowry. Temkin will be 67 when she steps down as chief curator. Christophe Cherix, MoMA’s current director, announced that the museum will initiate a search for her successor immediately.

In her advisory role, Temkin will help steer the museum toward its centennial, emphasizing a return to the spirit of experimentation and interdisciplinary curiosity that defined MoMA’s early years under founding director Alfred H. Barr Jr. She views the upcoming anniversary as an opportunity to rethink the museum’s trajectory, moving away from its late 20th-century doctrinal approach toward a more open and innovative future.