Female Voices in Art: Emilie Gordenker, Director of the Van Gogh Museum

Emilie Gordenker (b. 1965, Princeton, NJ, US), a dual US-Dutch national, is Director of the Van Gogh Museum. Previously, she was Director of the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (2008-2019). She earned her Ph.D. in 1998 from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, with a specialty in the history of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, the history of dress of that period and the artist Anthony van Dyck (dissertation, Van Dyck and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-Century Portraiture , published 2001). In New York, Emilie worked for the Met and the Frick Collection. She taught at several colleges and the Bard Graduate Center. She moved to London in 1999, where she worked for companies providing new media solutions for museums and galleries and was appointed Senior Curator for Early Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish Art at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh in 2003. At the Mauritshuis, she has led the major renovation and expansion of the museum, which was completed in June 2014.

Could you tell us something about your role in the art world?

I am an art historian and Director of the Van Gogh Museum.

What did you enjoy about being a part of this project?

The fact that the artist put women in the arts at front and centre; and also the unexpected way in which she chose to portray me.

Do you have a favourite artist?

I don’t have one - it’s like asking a mother which of her children is her favourite.

What is your earliest memory involving art?

Visiting the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my mother in the 1970s.

Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world?

Women are underrepresented as directors of museums that collect and display Old Masters and older art, particularly prominent institutions with a large operating budget.

What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it?

I am wearing a dress by Roksanda, specially bought for the Duchess of Cambridge's visit to the Mauritshuis in October 2016.

What impact has the current health crisis on your daily practice?

The Van Gogh Museum was closed for about 6 weeks, and since reopening we can only admit a fraction of our usual number of visitors. The crisis also has a considerable financial impact. So everything is different now.

Is it changing your views on Art?

People often say that Vincent van Gogh inspires and offers comfort. You can see that in our visitors.

Are you creating new initiatives and ways of working?

We are re-orienting to our Dutch visitors, in the hope that more will come and will come back. (Previously 85% of our visitors were foreigners.) We have also modified our exhibition schedule.