Q&A: Fowler’s new chief curator explains his role, goals for the museum
Matthew Robb assumed the role of chief curator at the Fowler Museum at UCLA on June 13.
The Fowler Museum at UCLA explores global arts with an emphasis on works from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the indigenous Americas—past and present. Matthew Robb joined the Fowler Museum as chief curator on June 13. Previously, Robb served as curator of the arts of the Americas at the de Young, one of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
One of Matthew Robb’s favorite childhood activities was counting the number of dogs in paintings.
As a child, Robb traveled with his family around the world visiting collections like the National Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. To entertain himself during his visits, he created an elaborate rating system for museums based on the number of dogs he found in their art.
Robb translated his love for museums into his work as a curator, beginning as an assistant at Princeton University Art Museum in 1999. On June 13, he assumed his new position as the chief curator at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Robb’s research focuses on studying Native American and ancient American cultural relics. Most recently, he curated the Arts of the Americas at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, where he created a database of hundreds of stone masks from the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan.
The Daily Bruin’s Emily McCormick spoke with Robb about his early interest in ancient art, responsibilities as a curator and vision for the Fowler Museum.
Daily Bruin: What made you want to focus your career on art of the Americas?
Matthew Robb: I’ve always been attracted to Mexico, probably since I was a little kid. I grew up in Texas, so my family would go there for trips. My parents were also very interested in the arts, since my dad was a museum curator and my mom was an art history professor. They would drag my brother and me around to museums pretty early on, and I guess something about the South American pyramids stuck with me, and oil on canvas didn’t quite sink in the same way. — Emily McCormick, Jun. 20, 2016
Read the entire interview at the Daily Bruin website.