Quentin Bajac
Born1965 (age 58–59)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
Alma materÉcole du Louvre
Occupation(s)Curator, historian of photography
Employer(s)École du Louvre, Museum of Modern Art, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume

Quentin Bajac (born 1965) is a French museum curator and art historian specialising in the history of photography.[1] He is the director of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.

Bajac has held positions at the Musée d'Orsay (1995–2003), Centre Georges Pompidou (2003–2010), Musée National d'Art Moderne and École du Louvre (2010–2013) and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (2013–2018).

He has published a number of works on photography, most notably the three-volume series—La photographie—on the history of photography (2000–2010), which belongs to the collection Découvertes Gallimard,[2] as well as Parr by Parr: Discussions with a Promiscuous Photographer (2011), Stephen Shore: Solving Pictures (2017), Being Modern: MoMA in Paris (co-author with Olivier Michelon, 2017).

In 2013 Bajac was made a Chevalier (knight) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Career

After gaining a diploma of the Institut national du patrimoine, Bajac was appointed Curator of Photography at the Musée d'Orsay in 1995 before joining the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003, where he has been an associate curator in the Photography Department.[2] In 2010, he was appointed Head of the Cabinet de la Photographie at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, and a professor at the École du Louvre. In January 2013, he was appointed The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.[2][3] Bajac remained in that post at MoMA until becoming director of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in November 2018.[4][5]

Bajac has curated various exhibitions on 19th-century and contemporary photography, in particular, he organised En collaboration avec le Soleil, Victor Hugo, photographies de l'exil (1998), Tableaux vivants : Fantaisies photographiques victoriennes (1999), La Commune photographiée (2000), Dans le champ des étoiles : Les photographes et le ciel, 1850-2000 (2000), Le Daguerréotype français : Un objet photographique (2003),[6] William Klein (2005), La Subversion des images : Surréalisme, photographie, film (2009), and Voici Paris : Modernités photographiques, 1920–1950 — La collection Christian Bouqueret (2012). As the chief curator of photography at MoMA, he organised A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio (2014), Scenes for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the Collection (2015), and Stephen Shore (2018).[4]

Honours

La photographie series

Publications

References

  1. ^ Bainbridge, Simon (16 November 2018). "Any Answers: Quentin Bajac". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Quentin Bajac: The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography". moma.org. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  3. ^ "Quentin Bajac leaves MoMA for the Jeu de Paume – British Journal of Photography". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  4. ^ a b Duponchelle, Valérie (14 November 2018). "Quentin Bajac succède à Marta Gili à la tête du Jeu de Paume". lefigaro.fr (in French). Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  5. ^ "MoMA Photography Chief Returns to Paris to Direct Museum". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  6. ^ Bajac, Quentin (2011). La invención de la fotografía: La imagen revelada. Coll. "Biblioteca ilustrada" (in European Spanish). Vol. 1. Translated by Cantenys Félez, Eva María. Barcelona: Blume Naturart. p. 10. ISBN 978-84-8076-931-0. About the author
  7. ^ "MINISTÈRE DE LA CULTURE ET DE LA COMMUNICATION : Arrêté du 9 juillet 2013 portant nomination dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres". france-phaleristique.com (in French). 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2018. ARTICLE 3 : Sont nommés au grade de Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres : Monsieur Quentin Bajac - Conservateur en chef de la photographie au MoMA.
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