DMA Appoints Lillian and James H. Clark Assistant Curator of European Art
Julien Domercq has been named The Lillian and James H. Clark assistant curator of European Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The appointment was announced by Dr. Agustín Arteaga, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott director. Domercq joins the DMA after serving as the Vivmar Curatorial fellow at the National Gallery in London from 2016 to 2018. He will begin his new role in Dallas on May 14.
Under the direction of Dr. Nicole R. Myers, the Museum’s Barbara Thomas Lemmon senior curator of European Art, Domercq will actively contribute to the European department’s robust research, exhibition, and collection programs.
The DMA’s European collection encompasses more than 1,900 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the Renaissance to the mid-20th century. Domercq will focus his efforts on the Old Master collection, rethinking its presentation and interpretation in the galleries and strategizing on collection growth in this area. Among his first exhibition projects are focused presentations of master paintings by Caravaggio and Frans Hals.
“Julien is a remarkable young talent, with impressive scholarship and international experience working in one of Europe’s most important public art institutions,” said Arteaga. “He has an incredible passion for making the presentation of European art exciting and accessible to a wide and multi-generational audience.
“This practice aligns well with the DMA’s mission to connect people and art. As we usher in a dynamic chapter in the European Art Department that was announced by the extraordinarily generous gift in 2013 of the Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Fund for European Art Before 1700, we are excited to welcome Julien to Dallas, and look forward to the work that he and Nicole Myers will accomplish together.”
At the National Gallery, London, Domercq curated the exhibition Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell (2017), a presentation of 23 works by Edgar Degas loaned from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow paired with selections from the National Gallery’s collection.
The Guardian praised the exhibition as “a ravishing, revealing window on Degas’s inner world.” Domercq assisted in the final stages of the exhibition Painters’ Paintings: From Freud to Van Dyck (2016) and also worked on major redisplays of the post-1800 and Italian Renaissance galleries, including reimagining the presentation of the National Gallery’s paintings by Titian and Raphael.
“With his breadth in European Old Masters, Julien will bring fresh eyes and new scholarship to the extant collection while expanding our holdings to reflect the DMA’s encyclopedic aim,” said Myers. “I am excited for us to work together to reinvigorate the Museum’s Old Master exhibition program, an area that has been relatively underserved. We are thrilled to welcome him to the curatorial team.”
Domercq earned his bachelor’s (with first class honors) and master’s (with distinction) degrees in art history from King’s College, Cambridge, where he is currently completing his PhD.
While there, his doctoral research was supported by a prestigious Gates Scholarship. His dissertation research explores shifts in European depictions of indigenous people in the Pacific Islands at the end of the 18th century.
“I am delighted to be moving to Dallas to join the curatorial team of the DMA at a time it is being dynamically reimagined under Dr. Arteaga’s direction,” said Domercq. “From my very first visit to Dallas, I was impressed by the central role the Museum plays for its community. Today, I am thrilled to be joining this great civic institution, with encyclopedic collections that reflect the vibrant multicultural city it serves.
“I am looking forward to immersing myself in the Dallas community and to devising ambitious Old Master exhibitions in partnership with other institutions internationally, collaborating on innovative programming and research with my new colleagues, and caring for, interpreting, and growing the DMA’s European Old Master collection, making it ever more accessible to the people of Dallas, and beyond.”
