Philip Conisbee; curator known for blockbuster shows
LOS ANGELES - Philip Conisbee, a celebrated curator of European paintings who built a reputation for blockbuster exhibitions and significant acquisitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., died Jan. 16 at his home in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood after a battle with lung cancer. He was 62.
Respected for his scholarly depth, Dr. Conisbee exuded such unrestrained excitement for the works he coveted that he once described opening crates of new paintings at the gallery as being "like Christmastime."
"He had a real joie de vivre," Gallery spokeswoman Deborah Ziska said. "Whenever he was describing a work of art or taking people on a tour of a collection, he would talk with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye as if he had some wonderful secrets to divulge."
Dr. Conisbee's passions for his popular area of art resonated with museum-goers: In 1998, nearly 500,000 people attended "Van Gogh's Van Goghs," a collection of 70 masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. When it moved to Los Angeles, 900,000 people turned out.
"Philip brought to the gallery a wealth of knowledge of European art and a great enthusiasm for sharing his insights," Earl A. Powell III, the director of the National Gallery, who hired Conisbee twice, first at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1988, and then at the National Gallery in 1993, said in a statement last week.
Dr. Conisbee wrote widely about art in a number of books and such publications as "Art in America."
Dr. Conisbee began his career as an art professor. Born Jan. 3, 1946 in Belfast, he grew up in London and earned a doctorate from the University of London's Courtauld Institute of Art in 1978. He taught at the University of London and two other British universities until 1986, when Boston's Museum of Fine Arts hired him as an associate curator of French painting.
Powell lured Dr. Conisbee to Los Angeles two years later, as curator of European paintings and sculpture.
Dr. Conisbee became one of the most valued members of the staff, organizing such popular exhibitions as the 1991 "Monet to Matisse: French Art in Southern California Collections."
"He was an excellent curator, a great scholar, and a wonderful friend," Powell said Monday.
In some of Dr. Conisbee's most memorable shows, he worked with French colleagues, and the French government bestowed two awards on him, the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, and the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
Dr. Conisbee became a US citizen in 1994. He leaves his wife, Faya Causey Conisbee; a son, Ben Conisbee Baer of New York; a daughter, Molly Conisbee-Rijke, of Bath, England; and a stepson, Jan Causey Frel. He also leaves his father, Paul, and a brother, Alan, both of London.
