National Gallery Curator Moves On

Curator Jeffrey Weiss has been appointed to a new position in the contemporary art world. (By Jacquelyn Martin -- Associated Press)

Jeffrey Weiss, the curator who heads the department of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Art, has been named director of the Dia Art Foundation, an institution known for championing a small number of artists and a tightly focused vision of post-1960 art.

Dia's exhibition history, and Weiss's at the gallery, show commonality of taste. Both have called attention to the art of Cy Twombly. They also worked together on the Dan Flavin retrospective, which visited the gallery in 2004.

At Dia, Weiss will succeed Michael Govan, who resigned to run the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Much of Dia's art is now displayed in Beacon, N.Y., in a vast former factory on the Hudson River. Dia also plans to reestablish a museum presence in Manhattan.

Weiss, 48, joined the National Gallery in 1994. He will remain there until "Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965," his most recent exhibition there, closes April 29. His successor has not been named.