Marica Vilcek, Advocate for Immigrant Artists, Passes Away at 89
Marica Vilcek, a champion of immigrant artists and scientists, has died at the age of 89. The beloved art historian and philanthropist passed away on Monday, March 23, at her New York home. News of Vilcek’s passing was announced by her namesake foundation, which she established in 2000 alongside her husband, Jan, to support immigrant contributions to the arts and research sciences. To date, the Vilcek Foundation has awarded more than $17 million to advance its immigrant-centered mission, including unrestricted cash awards for researchers and artists across disciplines.
“Marica had a remarkable ability to recognize potential in people — sometimes before they saw it in themselves,” Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel wrote in a eulogy shared with Hyperallergic. “She believed deeply that talent should be nurtured wherever it appeared.”
Born in 1936 as Marica Gerháth in the former Czechoslovakia, Vilcek came of age against the backdrop of the 1948 Soviet-backed takeover of her home country. At the age of 17, she became the only student from the city of Bratislava, located in current-day Slovakia, to gain admission to the prestigious Charles University in Prague. Soon after, though, she dropped out to care for her mother, who had fallen ill.
Vilcek was determined to complete her studies and earned her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral-equivalent degrees in art history from Comenius University in the nearby Bratislava.
Three years after she completed her most advanced degree in art history in 1959, Vilcek met her husband, Jan, a medical researcher. Months later, bonded in part by a mutual interest in research and a drive to help others, they were married.
As conditions deteriorated in the years leading up to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the couple fled to New York City in 1965 after obtaining United States refugee status in West Germany.
Jan Vilcek joined the microbiology faculty at New York University, where he developed the anti-inflammatory drug Remicade, used to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. The couple’s fortune comes from royalties earned from sales of the drug.
Meanwhile, Marica Vilcek volunteered at the Brooklyn Museum library and later secured a position in the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she would work for the next 30 years, ascending to the role of associate curator in charge of the museum’s Accessions and Catalogue Department.
She later established a high school internship program and funded early participants out of her own pocket, helping launch many young people’s museum professions. Vilcek served as an honorary trustee of The Met until her death. In 2010, she joined the board of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Kinsel, who was appointed executive director of the Vilcek Foundation in 2003, met Marica early in his career, while at The Met. “She advocated strongly for recognizing younger artists and scientists, people who were still building their work and whose voices might otherwise go unheard,” Kinsel wrote tenderly in his eulogy.
“Her legacy lives not only in the buildings, programs, and prizes that bear the Vilcek name,” he continued. “It lives in the people she encouraged, the paths she helped open, and the vision she quietly insisted we pursue.”
Remembered by her colleagues for her elegant charm and unceasing generosity, Vilcek will be honored in a small private funeral this weekend. She is survived by her husband, Jan.