LACMA Moves Tuchman to 20th-Century Drawings Post : Art: An official says the position was created for the longtime senior curator of 20th-Century art to help the museum build its collection.

In a major curatorial shift at the County Museum of Art, Maurice Tuchman, longtime senior curator of 20th-Century art, has been named senior curator of 20th-Century drawings. Stephanie Barron, curator of 20th-Century art, has been appointed acting head of the 20th-Century art department.

In his new post Tuchman, 56, will head a newly created department, building upon a collection of about 750 American and European drawings. Barron, 42, will take charge of the museum’s collection of about 1,000 20th-Century paintings and sculptures. The appointments took effect on Friday.

Tuchman became the museum’s first full-time curator of modern art in 1964, at the age of 27. A high-profile figure, he has organized such major exhibitions as “The Spiritual in Art” and “Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art.”

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Museum director Michael Shapiro denied that the move is a demotion for Tuchman. “This represents a strategic change,” Shapiro said. The appointments are part of an ongoing effort to assess the museum’s collections and pinpoint areas of potential growth, he said.

“We are looking at areas in which the museum can become a key repository and exhibition venue. Twentieth-Century drawings represent an opportunity for us. Drawings are wonderfully intimate and accessible objects for people. We have a small collection of European and American works . . . which we would like to enhance and focus on programmatically,” Shapiro said.

“With Maurice’s knowledge of 20th-Century art and his familiarity with the community, he is in an ideal position to assist us in building the collection,” Shapiro said.

Earlier attempts to deal with staffing cutbacks should not be confused with the museum’s ongoing “strategizing about art and philosophy,” the director said. “This is a sincere museum priority,” Shapiro said of the decision to create a new position for Tuchman. Although it may appear that he is being moved out of the limelight, curators of drawings are often very visible, Shapiro said. The prime example is John Elderfield, the curator of drawings at the Museum of Modern Art who organized the recent Matisse retrospective at MOMA, he noted.

Tuchman was unavailable for comment.

Barron, who organized the widely acclaimed “Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany,” will continue as curator of 20th-Century art while serving as acting director of the department. Her appointment is an interim measure, Shapiro said, “to give us a little time to discuss things.”