Hightower Quits the Modem Museum

John B. Hightower, director of the Museum of Modern Art since May 1970, resigned yesterday.

The resignation, which was the subject of conjecture in the art world for nearly five months, was announced by David Rockefeller, board chairman of the museum, and William S. Paley, its president. I Although in their statement Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Paley

said they were accepting Mr. Hightower's resignation “with deep regret,” it was understood that the resignation was requested.

It was the second departure of a director from the financially troubled museum in less than

three years. In May 1969, the board of trustees ousted Bates Lowry, who had served as director for 10 months.

To replace Mr. Hightower the museum promptly named Richard Oldenburg, director of publications since 1969, to serve as its acting director. He will be supported by a istrative committee c of top‐level curatorial ministrative personnel. Muse urn officials said that a search committee would be appointed in the near future to recommend a successor to Mr. Hightower.

In a letter to the two top museum officials, Mr. Hightower requested that his resignation take effect “as soon as it is practicable.” “My commitment to all the

arts and their inherent capacities as a humanizing influence for society can better be pursued elsewhere,” Mr. Hightower, former director of the New. York State Council on the Arts, declared.

Asserting that the museum's role was to “remain reflective and interpretive,” he said: “My own personal interests and inclinations are more oriented the application and intion of the arts to all aspects and ,segments of society.”

In their statement, Mr. Paley and Mr. Rockefeller praised Mr. Hightower for “the contributions he has made during the period of transition for the museum and in a time of greatly increased demands upon its services.”

Noting that the museum's deficit had been reduced substantially and new programs initiated, they wished him “a most satisfying and productive time in his future undertakings.”

Reached by telephone late yesterday, Mr. Hightower described his departure from the museum as “thoroughly amicable.”

He said that he did not plan to return to the Arts Council, which he served as director for six years before going to the museum, and had no other immediate plans.

Key staff members were told of the resignation yesterday afternoon by Mr. Paley, who summoned them to his office at the museum.

“I was surprised,” said Susan Bertram, president of the Professional and Staff Association of the museum, which recently won a labor contract with the museum. “Something like it might have happened earlier, but I didn't expect it at this ‘particular time. We had signed the contract, things were quieting down, and it seemed like communications were improving all around.”

Mr. Hightower came to the museum under auspicious circumstances. As director of the Arts Council, he had won reputation as a man able to deal with the most avant‐garde creative people, while at the same time being capable of translating their needs and programs into terms acceptable to legislators and bureaucrats.

His performance at the council was warmly endorsed by Governor Rockefeller, a trustee and past president of the museum. But the museum posed problems that Mr. Hightower had not experienced on the council.

Caught in an unprecedented financial squeeze, jolted by demands from staff unions, roiled by internal friction, under pressure by community and artists’ groups and—in common with sister institutions—no longer clear about its role and phiI llosophy, the museum was plagued by a range of difficulties to which many trustees felt Mr. Hightower's skills were unequal.

His performance was also challenged by the museum's professional staff, some of whom felt that Mr. Hightower lacked the necessary background in art history and basic museum functions. In private, some of the senior staff members voiced the opinion that Mr. Hightower's successor must be well versed in the internal affairs of the museum.

Mr. Hightower, a 38‐year‐old native of Atlanta, graduated from Yale University in 1955, and served in the Marine Corps. He worked as an assistant to the president and publisher of the American Heritage Publishing Company before joining the Arts Council in 1963 as executive assistant. In 1964 he succeeded John H. McFadyen as director of the council.

Mr. Oldenburg, 38, brother of the artist Claes Oldenburg, was graduated from Harvard in 1954. Prior to joining the museum, he was managing editor of the trade department of CroWell, Collier and Macmillan, the publishers.

The Museum of Modern Art, which is at 11 West 53d Street, was founded in 1929 by Lillie P. Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan and Mrs. John D. (Abby Aldrich) Rockefeller Jr., the mother of the Governor. It has achieved international fame for its collection of late 19th and 20th ‐ century painting and sculpture, and is noted for its departments of photography, design and architecture and cinema.