Archives of American Art Announces Election of Four New Trustees

The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has elected Perry Amsellem, Linda Lichtenberg Kaplan, Bridget Moore and Martin O’Brien to its board of trustees. They will join the board’s membership including nearly 40 prominent members of the American art community.

Amsellem is an attorney and partner with Pryor Cashman in New York, NY with a focus in intellectual property and commercial litigation. He has advised several prominent artists, art dealers, and artist’s foundations on legal matters. He has been counsel to The Dedalus Foundation, Inc., formerly known as The Robert Motherwell Foundation, since 2008, addressing litigation, authentication and not-for-profit issues on its behalf and served as dealer Leo Castelli’s legal counsel for the last 10 years of Castelli’s life.The Archives acquired the Leo Castelli Gallery records in 2007. Amsellem received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts in 1986 and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law School in 1989.

Kaplan is a Washington, DC, collector of early 20th century American art.From 1990 to 2002 she served as a Commissioner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and currently is a trustee of The Phillips Collection. Kaplan was a noted fine arts appraiser with a specialty in 20th century American art.She received her B.A. in Fine Arts from Boston University.

Moore is the president and owner of DC Moore Gallery in New York City.The gallery, which represents numerous contemporary artists, as well as estates and foundations, is dedicated to research and scholarship with an extensive catalogue and publication programin the field of contemporary and 20th century American art. Among theestates and foundations are those ofRomare Bearden,Charles Burchfield, Roger Brown, Jacob Lawrence, Jack Levine, Robert De Niro, Sr., Nathan Oliveira and George Tooker. The gallery also provides broad expertise in modern and postwar American Art and offers a variety of work by artists such as Milton Avery, Oscar Bluemner, Paul Cadmus, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove and John Marin.Contemporary artists represented include DavidDriskell, Janet Fish, Mark Innerst, Yvonne Jacquette, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner and Whitfield Lovell.She is a graduate of Smith College.

O’Brien is the President of Allied Insurance Brokers, a nationwide property and casualty insurance broker focused exclusively on serving the rental equipment and party goods, crane, concrete pumping, scaffold and wood products industries and nonprofit and human service organizations. He is also a founding member of the Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners, a collaboration of individuals who invest time, expertise and capital to serve at-risk youth.He serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.O’Brien is an active collector of American art with a focus on paintings and works on paper from the first half of the 20th century.He has a B.A. from Marietta College.

The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art enlivens the extraordinary human stories behind America’s most significant art and artists. It is the world’s pre-eminent resource dedicated to collecting and preserving the papers and primary records of the visual arts in America.