Eric McCauley Lee knows art – and he should.

The former director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art has a doctorate in art history from Yale University. He has served as the director of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati since January 2007. On March 23, he will assume directorship of Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum.

During his nearly decade-long tenure at the Jones Museum, Lee was a key figure in the acquisition of the Weitzenhoffer Bequest, a collection of 33 French Impressionist paintings which included works from Monet, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir, in 2000. He also headed the museum’s 2005 expansion – the 34,000 square foot Lester Wing designed by Hugh Newell Jacobson, who was a student of Louis Kahn, the architect who designed the Kimbell. According to Lee, the Jones is a physical “descendent” of the Kimbell.

“The Kimbell has been a dream job of mine since I was in graduate school,” Lee said. “I love the architecture of Louis Kahn. The Kimbell is arguably Kahn’s greatest building -- I think it’s certainly his greatest museum building.”

The museum’s permanent collection is small, Lee said, but the quality of its artwork is exemplary. The collection consists of less than 350 pieces, but includes works by Picasso, Monet, El Greco and Rembrandt.

“Every work in the collection is of major significance,” he said. “The combination [of the Kimbell’s architecture and exhibitions] … is just magical.”

The museum has a track record of excellent exhibitions and acquisitions, Lee said. There are several exhibitions planned for the museum this year. “Art and Love in Renaissance Italy,” an exhibition of Italian art celebrating love and marriage, was showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and opens at the Kimbell on March 15.

Beginning in July, filmmaker Philip Haas (1995’s Oscar-nominated “Angels and Insects”) will debut his series of cinematic interpretations of pieces in the museum’s permanent collection in an exhibition titled “Butchers, Dragons, Gods and Skeletons: An Exhibition of Film Installations by Philip Haas Inspired by Works in the Collection.” The first installation will focus on Annibale Carracci’s 16th century painting, “The Butcher’s Shop.”

The museum’s exterior will also change during his occupancy as director, Lee said. A building designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano will begin construction in 2010, with a scheduled completion date of 2012. The building will house special exhibitions and space for education, which is a major focus of the museum, Lee said.

When he takes over, Lee will become the Kimbell’s fourth director. He will succeed Timothy Potts, who left the museum in 2007 for a directorial position at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambrige in England.

Lee has an “understanding for the Kimbell,” he said. That, coupled with his knowledge of art history and the Southwest will help tremendously in the transition from Ohio to Texas.

“I think my years in Oklahoma will serve me very well when I’m in Fort Worth,” he said. “I’m very much looking forward to coming back to that part of the country. I love the light and the optimism of that part of the Southwest. It will seem like coming home.”