In Memoriam: James T. Demetrion
People & Community
We mourn the passing of James T. Demetrion, the distinguished former director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden who in his seventeen-year tenure, from 1984 to 2001, transformed an idiosyncratic private art collection into a world-class museum of modern and contemporary art. After his retirement he became a spirited and engaged trustee of The Phillips Collection and an enthusiastic supporter of Wolfgang Laib’s permanent wax room at the Phillips. “Jim Demetrion was an inspiring museum director and a great mentor,” said Klaus Ottmann, The Phillips Collection’s chief curator, who in 2000 curated the Laib retrospective at the Hirshhorn under Demetrion’s leadership.
![Photo of James](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_1360px_/public/featured_images/James_Demetrion.jpg?itok=XNGvsFvH)
James T. Demetrion with Brice Mardena Cold Mountain 2, 1989-91. Photo: Cathy Carver, from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden