Draft:Guillaume Kientz

Guillaume Kientz
Born	(1980-11-23) November 23, 1980 Strasbourg, France
Occupations	Art historian, museum director, heritage curator
Known for	Curation and scholarship of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American art
Title	Director and CEO of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library

Guillaume Kientz (born November 23, 1980) is a French art historian, heritage curator, and museum director. He serves as the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the [[Hispanic Society Museum & Library]] in New York City, an appointment he has held since 2021. Kientz is a specialist in Old Master painting, particularly known for his extensive curatorial work and publications on Spanish Golden Age, Carvaggism , Goya, Portuguese and Latin American art.

Early life and education

Guillaume Kientz was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1980. From 1998 to 2002, he studied at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Strasbourg, graduating from the public service division. He pursued a dual curriculum in political science and art history across institutions in Strasbourg, Paris, and Rome, including an Erasmus fellowship at the Università degli studi Roma Tre.

He earned a Master I Research degree in Art History from Marc Bloch University under the supervision of Martial Guédron and Anne Corneloup (Les Princes de l'Eglise en representation: Le portrait cardinalice a l'age baroque), followed by a Master II Research degree from the University of Provence under the direction of Olivier Bonfait (Catalogue des peintures hollandaises du musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence). In 2006, Kientz successfully passed the competitive state examination for national heritage curators (concours de conservateur du patrimoine) and completed his professional training at the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) between 2007 and 2008. He later completed specialized training in intercultural negotiations (INP-Aktéos, 2016) and change management (DeFilippo Leadership, 2023).

Career

Early career

During his studies, Kientz held early positions as a curatorial intern at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg (2003) and the Leighton House Museum in London for the Leighton Drawings Project (2006). From 2004 to 2005, he worked as a publication assistant for the art history journal Perspective at the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA). During his training at the Institut National du Patrimoine, he completed professional assignments across regional directorates (DRAC Poitou-Charentes and DRAC PACA), the Bavarian Palace Department (Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung) in Munich, and the Department of Paintings at the Musée du Louvre.

DRAC d'Auvergne (2008–2010)

From 2008 to 2010, Kientz worked as the Curator of Historical Monuments for the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) of Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand. In this territory-focused role, he managed heritage policy, provenance research, oversaw monument renovations and object conservation. He also wrote various articles (see below) on 17th century French paintings newly discovered in local churches. He collaborated with the World Monuments Fund on restoring Rémy Vuibert’s painted ceiling at the Visitandines chœur in Moulins, managed local church painting registries, and structured the reorganization of the Puy-en-Velay Cathedral Treasury.

Musée du Louvre (2010–2019)

In 2010, Kientz joined the Musée du Louvre in Paris as the curator in charge of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American paintings within the Department of Paintings. Over nine years, he curated acclaimed exhibitions (see below), coordinated painting restorations (2010–2015), and monitored the international art market for acquisition opportunities (2015–2019). He was also involved in the prefiguration phase of the Musée Poussin project (later known as Musée du Grand Siècle in Saint-Cloud).

During his time at the Louvre, Kientz secured notable acquisitions, including a 15th-century Pietà attributed to Gonçal Peris, Maino's Saint Peter, a newly rediscovered painting of Saint John by Jusepe de Ribera, and a masterpiece by Josefa de Óbidos donated by Philippe Mendes. He established an Iberian art research network with the INHA and university partners (BAILA, later RETIB) and organized major international retrospectives.

Kimbell Art Museum (2019–2021)

In 2019, Kientz relocated to the United States to serve as the Curator of European Art (spanning the Middle Ages to the 20th century) at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. At the Kimbell, he managed the museum's European Art collection encompassing antiquities, sculptures, and paintings, exploring transversal presentation strategies across different historical periods and geographical regions. he curated the acclaimed exhibitions Flesh & Blood. Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum, and Murillo: From Heaven to Earth.

Hispanic Society Museum & Library (2021–present)

In early 2021, Kientz was appointed Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York City, succeeding Mitchell Codding. Under his leadership, the institution initiated a major physical, programming, and community-driven revitalization.

Campus Renovation and Reopening

Upon taking office, Kientz inherited a multi-year master plan to restore and modernize the museum's historic Washington Heights campus, which had been closed to the public since 2017 for extensive structural overhauls. Working alongside Board Chairmen Philippe de Montebello and Mark H. Rosenberg, Kientz successfully guided the museum through its first major phase of renewal, culminating in the public reopening of the main building and library galleries in mid-2023. He continues to oversee an ongoing $50 million multi-phase renovation designed to implement a new visitor welcome center, an expanded education department, dedicated special exhibition galleries, and modernized conservation laboratories under the direction of Annabelle Selldorf and Beyer Blinder Belle, concluding the first phase in 2023.

Curatorial Direction and Modernization

As director, Kientz shifted the institution's curatorial approach toward dynamic, rotating exhibition programming rather than static permanent displays. While maintaining the museum's core strength in Golden Age Spanish Old Masters, he introduced twentieth- and twenty-first-century contemporary art into the exhibition calendar to establish artistic links between historical and modern Hispanic culture.

In 2024, the HSML launched the Goya Research Center at the Hispanic Society and founded a Poetry Center in 2026. These specialized centers bring together international scholars and curators to coordinate academic fellowships, execute comprehensive digital cataloging projects , and organize public symposia and exhibitions.

During Kientz's tenure, the HSML has received over 100 art acquisitions and donations, and embarked on a multi-year collection transformation plan supported by the Ford Foundation.

Community and International Engagement

Kientz prioritized community integration, implementing programs specifically tailored to engage the local, predominantly Latino demographic of Upper Manhattan. Concurrently, he expanded the museum's global footprint by organizing high-profile international traveling exhibitions—including major partnerships in Madrid and London—and developing collaborative short-term loan initiatives with peer global museums.

International Expansion and Valencia Branch

Under Kientz's direction, the Hispanic Society finalized a landmark long-term agreement with the Generalitat Valenciana to establish the institution's first international branch and European headquarters. Located in the historic Palacio de las Comunicaciones in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento of Valencia, Spain, the new museum space is scheduled to open to the public in late 2026.

Formally titled "The Hispanic Society of America – Colección Sorolla," the branch will house a semi-permanent exhibition of more than 220 works of art on loan from the Hispanic Society’s permanent collection in New York. The selection focuses heavily on the production of the renowned Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla, comprising oil paintings, gouaches, drawings, sculptures, historical photographs, and personal correspondence. Structured as a four-year renewable loan contract with a projected 15-year collaborative horizon, the initiative represents the second-largest public collection of Sorolla's work in Spain. Kientz described the project as a strategic extension of the museum's global footprint.

Exhibitions curated

• Le Trésor brodé de la cathédrale du Puy-en-Velay (Le Puy-en-Velay Cathedral Treasury, 2010)
• « El niño azul ». Goya et la peinture espagnole au Louvre (DNP Tokyo, 2012)
• Le Mexique au Louvre (Musée du Louvre, 2013)
• Ribera. Le premier apostolado (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes / Strasbourg, 2014)
• Velázquez (Grand Palais, 2015)
• Greco (Grand Palais, 2019)
• Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum (Kimbell Art Museum, 2020)
• Velázquez (Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, 2022)
• Velázquez per Ceruti (Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia, 2022)
• Murillo: From Heaven to Earth (Kimbell Art Museum, 2022)
• Sorolla / Soto: A Double Centennial (Hispanic Society Museum & Library, 2023)
• The Word-Shimmering Sea: Diego Velázquez / Enrique Martínez Celaya (Hispanic Society Museum & Library, 2023)
• Sorolla and the Sea (Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, 2024)
• Goya and the Age of Revolution (Hispanic Society Museum & Library, 2025)
• Don’t Forget We Come From The Tropics: Adriana Varejão (Hispanic Society Museum & Library, 2025)
• Splendeurs du Baroque (Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, 2026)
• 500 Years of Spanish Painting (KED, Seoul, 2026)

Publications

Monographs

• Velázquez. L'affrontement de la peinture, Paris: Cohen & Cohen, 2015 (384 pp.).
• Le Siècle d’Or espagnol, Paris: Citadelles et Mazenod, 2019 (255 pp.).

Museum and exhibition catalogues

• Le Mexique au Louvre. Chefs-d’œuvre de la Nouvelle Espagne, XVII–XVIIIe, Paris: Éditions du Louvre / Fomento Cultural Banamex, 2013 (107 pp.).
• Ribera à Rome, autour du premier Apostolado, Rennes: Éditions du musée des Beaux-Arts, 2014 (136 pp.).
• Velázquez, Paris: Éditions du Louvre / RMN, 2015 (440 pp.).
• (with D. Jacquot, M. Lavallée, P. Goldenberg, E. Moench, A. Roy) De Giotto à Goya. Peintures italiennes et espagnoles du musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Strasbourg: Musées de Strasbourg, 2017.
• Greco, Paris: Éditions du Louvre / RMN, 2019 (248 pp.).
• Velázquez, Accademia Carrara, Milan: Skira, 2022 (74 pp.).
• Murillo. From Heaven to Earth, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022 (190 pp.).
• Splendeurs du Baroque. Peintures de la Hispanic Society of America, Paris: Hazan, 2026 (192 pp.).

Contributions to collective works and essays

• "Miroir du Nouveau Monde. Réflexions sur une peinture à la fois proche et lointaine", in Andes Célestes. Peintures et orfèvrerie, XVI-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2017.
• "Le musée espagnol de Louis-Philippe", in Louis Philippe Ier, Versailles: Domaine des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 2018 (pp. 150–154).

• "Diego Velázquez et les chemins du naturalisme en Espagne", in C. Dury (dir.), Dans la poussière de Séville – sur les traces du Saint Thomas de Velázquez, Orléans, 2021 (pp. 12–31).
• "The Ghosts of Juan Muñoz", in Seven Rooms, New York: David Zwirner Books, 2023 (pp. 82–89).
• "Une nature morte à l’épreuve des temps", in L. Bertrand Dorléac (dir.), Histoires de l’Art, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2026.
• "Children in an Ocean of Painting", in The Word-Shimmering Sea: Diego Velázquez / Enrique Martínez Celaya, Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2026.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• "Le Christ en Croix de l’église d’Oradour, une toile inédite du Mexicain Juan Rodriguez Juarez dans le Cantal", Revue de l’art, no. 169, 2010-3 (pp. 71–73).
• "Le recensement des peintures de chevalet en Auvergne, premiers résultats et découvertes dans les églises", Monumental, vol. 2, 2010 (p. 91).
• "La collection Fruman: chefs-d’œuvre de la broderie espagnole au trésor de la cathédrale du Puy", Patrimoines, vol. 6, 2010 (pp. 152–157).
• "Philippe de Champaigne c. 1630: A rediscovered 'Pentecost' for the Carmelites in rue Saint-Jacques, Paris", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 153, no. 1305, Dec. 2011 (pp. 797–802).
• "Œuvres inédites d’Isaac Moillon, François Perrier, Georges Lallemant, etc.: peintures du XVIIe siècle en Auvergne", Les cahiers d’histoire de l’art, vol. 9, 2011 (pp. 15–23).
• "Une nouvelle attribution (Juriaen van Streeck) pour une nature morte, château d’Aulteribe", Monumental, vol. 1, 2011 (p. 78).
• "La Galerie des Carrache au Palais Farnèse", Revue de l’Art, no. 194, 2016-4 (pp. 55–65).

Academic and teaching appointments

Kientz has lectured extensively on connoisseurship, art theory, and historical curation:

• Institut d’Études Politiques (Aix-en-Provence) (2009–2012): Master in Cultural Affairs lecturer on cultural policy structures.
• Institut National du Patrimoine (Paris) (2010–2012): Lectured on Spanish primitives and 16th–17th century Spanish painting.
• École du Louvre (Paris & regional branches) (2011–2016): Taught classes on Velázquez, and the Spanish Golden Age.
• Institute of Fine Arts (New York) (2019): Special seminar course titled "El Greco, from ideas to exhibitions".
• Fondazione Roberto Longhi (Florence) (2020): Taught "El Greco e il Connoisseurship".

Awards and honors

• 2015: Prix François-Victor Noury awarded by the [(Institut de France) for his monograph on Velázquez.
• 2017: Daniel Arasse Fellowship at the [(Villa Medici) (French Academy in Rome).
• 2019: Nominated for the Prix Montherlant by the [(Académie des Beaux-Arts) for Le Siècle d’Or espagnol.
• 2022: Premios Arte y Empresa (Madrid) – Best International Exhibition for Greco at the Grand Palais.

== References ==