Taking a Step-by-Step Approach to Growth

Olga Viso, now director of the Walker Art Center, was hired by Mr. Benezra as an assistant curator at the Hirshhorn in 1994 and considers him her mentor.

“I learned my curatorial, installation and collection-building skills from Neal,” Ms. Viso said. “He’s a great long-view, strategic thinker. Watching Neal, I learned the importance of balancing impulse with patience.”

Their institutions co-organized the Frida Kahlo exhibition last year, and it was the most highly attended show in the San Francisco museum’s history.

Mr. Benezra’s institution has also been a pioneer in joint acquisitions between museums as a way to share costs during the recent years of a skyrocketing art market. He has partnered with the Hirshhorn on a video piece by Gary Hill, with the Walker on a multimedia installation by Matthew Barney, and most recently with the Art Institute and the Guggenheim on a sculpture by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

“Neal has subtle leadership qualities,” said Mr. Demetrion, now retired. “He has a good rapport with people at all levels, which is very important. He’s able to work with trustees and he’s able to work with colleagues, not just at the museum but in other institutions as well.”

Mr. Benezra plans to mark the museum’s 75th anniversary next year with shows drawn from the permanent collection (which, not inconsequently, are cheaper to produce). “We want this anniversary to tell stories about our history that make it clear why we matter,” he said.

Founded in 1935, the museum is one of the three oldest in the country, along with MoMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, dedicated to modern and contemporary art. It gave Jackson Pollock his first museum show, as well as Arshile Gorky and Clyfford Still, who returned the favor in 1975 with a gift of 28 canvases.