Who

As head of the Museum of Modern Art since 1995, Lowry has presided over the museum's massive expansion—and courted plenty of controversy along the way.

Backstory

Born in New York City and raised in Massachusetts, Lowry was a dark horse candidate for the MoMA job when he was picked in 1995 (his PhD thesis at Harvard was on Islamic art, of which the MoMA has none), but he got the nod after five other museum directors passed. Previously, Lowry had been in charge of the Art Gallery of Ontario, hardly a comparable institution. But he impressed the MoMA's trustees with his sharp financial acumen and the budget cuts he'd carried out, which were particularly impressive in light of the blockbuster shows he was still able to stage.

Since taking over, Lowry has overseen several of the most profound changes to affect the institution. In 1999, he teamed up with Alanna Heiss to merge MoMA with P.S.1. He also redirected MoMA's permanent collection away from older works in favor of younger, edgier work. In recent years, the museum has sold enormously valuable pieces such Picasso's 1913 Man with a Guitar (Si Newhouse bought it), using the proceeds to acquire newer works such as a Francis Bacon triptych and work by the youthful talents like Elizabeth Peyton, Julie Mehretu, and Eve Sussman. Most notably, of course, Lowry has presided over the museum's giant expansion, buying the Swingline stapler factory in Sunnyside, Queens to house the collection until the Yoshio Taniguchi-designed building was completed in 2005, just in time to celebrate the institution's 75th anniversary.

Of note

The museum's $858 million expansion, which created 120,000 square feet of new gallery space, has been the defining and most dramatic episode of the Lowry era. While it may look good from the outside—a "lustrous building," according to the New Yorker—some critics say it feels like a soulless corporate machine. ("That MoMA could have spent so much money on a design that seems so unaccommodating—and already feels too small—for its growing audience is a travesty," wrote Roberta Smith.) But Lowry has also been taken to task for plenty of other deeds, some dating back as far as his first few weeks on the job, when he infuriated curators by changing the museum's management structure. In 2004, he was assailed for raising the cost of admission to $20. He's also been sharply criticized for the way he's rigidly compartmentalized different media—displaying video with video, paintings with paintings, sculpture with sculpture—whereas most contemporary gallerists mix and match. And then there's the matter of his outsized pay package, which hasn't exactly endeared him to his critics. Lowry will get a chance to redeem himself (somewhat) when the MoMA unveils 40,000 square feet and three floors' worth of new gallery space in a Jean Nouvel-designed skyscraper immediately to the east of the MoMA.

On the job

Second only to outgoing Met head Philippe de Montebello, Lowry is one of the highest-earning museum officials in the country: He pulled in $1.3 million in 2006. From 1995 to 2003, he received a number of large additional payments—totaling some $5.35 million—as part of a trust set up by patrons Agnes Gund and David Rockefeller to lure Lowry to New York. (The revelation of the trust in February 2007 generated a mini-scandal among art aficionados.) In 2008, he signed a five-year contract extension that will keep him at 11 West 53rd Street through 2013. Should he leave before that, it's likely Kathy Halbreich will step in to fill his shoes. The acclaimed former director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Halbreich was hired in 2007 as associate director.

Namedrop

A major part of Lowry's job is contending with the MoMA's board of heavy-hitters. Real estate mogul Jerry Speyer serves as chair; trustees include Sid Bass, Ronald Lauder, Marie-Josee Kravis, Leon Black, Pete Peterson, Agnes Gund, Michael Lynne, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Dick Parsons, Donald Marron, Vartan Gregorian, and David Childs.

Personal

Lowry and his wife Susan live rent-free in an apartment in Museum Tower that is owned by MoMA. In 1999, he sold his Gracie Square apartment and pocketed a $1.3 million profit. He also owns a weekend home in Cold Spring, New York.