The Speed Art Museum continues to add to its curatorial staff in preparation for re-opening in 2016. Erika Holmquist-Wall, a specialist in 19th and 20th century Nordic art and design, joins the museum next month as the Mary and Barry Bingham Sr. Curator of European and American Painting and Sculpture.The Speed announced the hire of contemporary art curator Miranda Lash, formerly of the New Orleans Museum of Art, in July.Holmquist-Wall joins the Speed from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where she's worked since 2000, most recently as assistant curator of paintings. She's also an internationally-known expert in provenance research with an interest in World War II spoliation issues, which includes works acquired through Nazi looting or seizures of private collections. See "Honoring the Monuments Men, art saviors of World War II" at MIA. Recent exhibitions of hers include "The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy" for the MIA in 2011 and "Matisse: Masterworks" for the Baltimore Museum of Art. In a news release, Speed Chief Curator Scott Erbes expressed enthusiasm for Holmquist-Wall's expertise in German Expressionism and the work of Norweigan painter and printmaker Edvard Munch. In the same release, museum director Ghislain d’Humières said Holmquist-Wall “will play an integral role in our vision of becoming a 21st-century museum that offers dynamic and immersive experiences to its visitors.”
