Guggenheim Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is poised to name Richard Armstrong as its new director, replacing Thomas R. Krens, who announced in February that he was stepping down, the museum said on Tuesday.

Eleanor R. Goldhar, the Guggenheim’s deputy director of external affairs, confirmed that Mr. Armstrong was the leading candidate. Although he is still negotiating with the museum, she said, the museum’s board is set to vote on the appointment at its next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 23. She added that the board might decide to vote earlier.

The choice of Mr. Armstrong, 59, a seasoned museum professional who resigned in June from the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where he had been director since 1996, is expected to build his international profile.

In addition to running the Guggenheim Museum in New York, he will be responsible for the foundation’s global network of museums in Berlin, Venice and Bilbao, Spain, as well as its new branch in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which is expected to open in 2013.

“My ambition is to build on the unique history of the Guggenheim and its commitment to living artists,” Mr. Armstrong said in a telephone interview.

The potential appointment was reported by The New York Sun on Tuesday in its online editions.

The choice was considered a safe one after nearly 20 often tumultuous years of Mr. Krens’s maverick vision. In addition to being criticized for his globe-trotting ways, in which he created an array of satellite institutions, Mr. Krens was known for dipping into the museum’s endowment to cover operating costs and for mounting exhibitions from motorcycles to of-the-moment artists like Matthew Barney.

Perhaps more controversial within the institution, however, was his often contentious relationship with important donors. Three years ago, the Cleveland philanthropist Peter B. Lewis, who had given the institution some $77 million — nearly four times as much as any other board member in the museum’s history — resigned from the foundation’s board in what became a him-or-me battle, citing “differences in direction” and saying he wished the museum would concentrate more on New York.

Mr. Armstrong said that he wanted “to celebrate New York in particular but not at the expense of all the others.”

He is no stranger to New York institutions. He worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1981 to 1992 in a variety of positions, including as a curator and its senior instructor of the Whitney’s Independent Study Program. He helped organize three of the Whitney’s much-celebrated biennials — in 1987, 1989 and 1991 — along with many other shows, including one devoted to the sculptor Alexis Smith in 1991.

In his tenure in Pittsburgh, Mr. Armstrong organized the 1995 Carnegie International, celebrating the 100th anniversary of its survey show. In 2003, he oversaw the renovation of the Scaife Galleries, home to the Carnegie’s permanent collection as well as the renovation of the Heinz Architectural Center in 2000.

Guggenheim insiders say its board was seeking a calmer, steadier presence.

Asked whether he believed the Guggenheim should spread its international wings further or clip them, Mr. Armstrong said, “The museum will embrace its global leadership and everyone looks forward to the Abu Dhabi site opening in the next few years.”

In the meantime, he added, the 50th anniversary of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum in New York, is a “historic opportunity to celebrate the museum.”