Helmut Friedel

Helmut Friedel (born June 20, 1946 in Munich ) is a German art historian . From 1990 to the end of 2013 he was director of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich and from 2014 to 2017 director of the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden.

Career

From 1966 to 1973 Friedel studied art history and classical archeology at the Universities of Munich and Florence and obtained his Magister Artium in 1972 . This was followed by a doctorate in 1973 with an investigation into Augsburg bronze monuments around 1600. After a scholarship from the Max Planck Society at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, a traineeship at the Bavarian National Museum and at the State Painting Collections in Munich followed. In 1977 Friedel was appointed curator at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, and from 1981 he taught at the Art History Institute of the University of Munich, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at the Bavarian State Institute for Photography . Helmut Friedel is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. In 1990 he was appointed director at the Lenbachhaus and in 1994 he was appointed honorary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. At the end of 2013 he retired as director at the Lenbachhaus. His successor was Matthias Mühling .

Act

Helmut Friedel came to the Lenbachhaus in 1977 as a curator, which in that decade opened up to new and young international art under the direction of Armin Second . Together they developed an extensive and varied exhibition program on classical modernism and international contemporary art. As a curator , Friedel devoted himself to the new media, video art has been shown at the Lenbachhaus since the late 1970s , there were performances and there was a spectacular Landart action in the southeast of Munich. The 1979 and 1981 performance series included a. Arnulf Rainer and Dieter Roth , Jürgen Klauke , Peter Weibel, Jana Heimsohn, Jochen Gerz , Valie Export , Herbert Achternbusch , Laurie Anderson , Dan Graham .

For the Kunstforum , an additional exhibition space in the Maximilianstrasse underpass, Helmut Friedel curated a total of 92 presentations of contemporary art a. a. with works by Franz Erhard Walther , Roni Horn , Stephan Huber , Keiji Uematsu, Yuji Takeoka , Kazuo Katase , Urs Lüthi , Carl Andre and Ian McKeever.

In the 1980s, Friedel set a new focus on Italian contemporary art for the Lenbachhaus, and the comprehensive presentation The Dream of Orpheus became legendary. Mythology in contemporary Italian art 1967–1984. There were also large exhibitions and a. to Michelangelo Pistoletto , Alberto Burri , Marco Gastini, Enzo Cucchi and Jannis Kounellis .

In 1990 Helmut Friedel succeeded Armin Second as director. Inspired by the historical form of presentation of the Art of the Blue Rider in 1911, which was first shown in front of a dark background and later in colored demonstration rooms, he hung this area of ​​the collection in the Lenbachhaus on colored walls - a measure that aroused heated controversy since then Works of classical modernism were always presented in a neutral “white cube”. In doing so, Friedel created a precedent that is still effective today and that is sometimes imitated without a historical context. He justified this approach in an article written together with Uwe M. Schneede , saying that this type of presentation was intended to restore a little of their originality to the pictures of the Blue Rider, which would have been lost through their transition to aesthetic common property.

In 1994 he was able to open the Kunstbau, a large underground exhibition space above the Königsplatz underground station with a room-filling light installation by the American artist Dan Flavin . This additional space made it possible to expand the exhibition activities, especially in the field of contemporary art. A total of 66 extensive exhibitions took place in the Kunstbau between 1994 and the end of 2013, including numerous presentations of contemporary art by Dan Flavin, Chuck Close , Jenny Holzer , Jeff Wall , Harald Klingelhöller , Rupprecht Geiger , Per Kirkeby , Gerhard Richter , On Kawara , Rosemarie Trockel , James Coleman, David Claerbout , Cerith Wyn Evans , Angela Bulloch / Tom Burr, Erwin Wurm and many more. as well as historical art such as by Gabriel von Max , Paula Modersohn-Becker , Egon Schiele , Piet Mondrian , Marcel Duchamp and extensive themed exhibitions. The monographic exhibitions by Franz Marc (2005/06) and Wassily Kandinsky (2008/09) were particularly successful with the public .

In 1998/1999, under the leadership of Helmut Friedel as chairman of the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, the Münter House in Murnau was renovated and the state of the so-called "Russian House" was restored in the period before the First World War, as Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky lived there.

At the Lenbachhaus, exhibitions and new acquisitions for the collections were coordinated. The terms “great realism” and “great abstraction” coined by Wassily Kandinsky outline the relevant spectrum from representational painting, photography and video to abstract art. Acquisitions were often accompanied by extensive donations from the artists, so u. a. by Rupprecht Geiger and Günter Fruhtrunk . Outstanding acquisitions were the ›Atlas‹ by Gerhard Richter in 1996 and the Environment by Joseph Beuys , ›Before Breaking Out from Camp I‹ (1970/80), in 2013. He succeeded in making numerous generous donations and donations to the house bind: for example the donation of 15 sculptures by Joseph Beuys by Lothar Schirmer , the cooperation with the Christoph Heilmann Foundation for 19th Century Art and above all the KiCo Foundation, which enables the house to acquire important works of contemporary art. Helmut Friedel initiated numerous research projects to develop the collection holdings. a. in catalogs of works on Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc and Gerhard Richter. In 2013 Helmut Friedel was able to open the new Lenbachhaus after a 4-year renovation and construction period. The building, which was completely refurbished, modernized and enriched by a new extension based on plans by Foster + Partners , now meets the requirements of a modern museum of the 21st century.

Publications

Helmut Friedel is now involved in over 230 publications on contemporary art, including a large number of contributions to art exhibitions at the Lenbachhaus.

Curations (catalogs in selection)

• Rupprecht Geiger - paintings and drawings , publisher Helmut Friedel, texts: Rupprecht Geiger, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Munich 1978.
• Performances 79 - body language, dance music, video film, theater , publisher Helmut Friedel, texts Karlheinz Hein, Ingrid Imhof, Karl Imhof, Munich, 1979.
• Art and Technology in the Twenties: New Objectivity and Objective Constructivism. Paintings, drawings, graphics, photos, films., Helmut Friedel u. Ingeborg Güssow, Munich 1980.
• The dream of Orpheus: Mythology in contemporary Italian art 1967 - 1984 , Ed .: Helmut Friedel. Texts: Helmut Friedel, Jürgen Schilling u. a., Munich 1984.
• Jannis Kounellis: Works from 1958 to 1985 , Ed. Helmut Friedel, Munich 1985.
• You Can Imagine the Opposite: Maurizio Nannucci. Ed .: Helmut Friedel, Munich 1991.
• Gabriele Münter (1877–1962): Retrospective. Ed .: Annegret Hoberg , Helmut Friedel, Munich: Prestel [u. a.] 1992.
• "Dan Flavin in Engineering," in Dan Flavin; Kunstbau Lenbachhaus Munich (Architecture Uwe Kiessler) / Ed. Helmut Friedel, Munich 1994
• The colorful life: Wassily Kandinsky in the Lenbachhaus. Edited by Helmut Friedel. Edited by Vivian Endicott Barnett, texts by VEBarnett, Marion Ackermann and H. Friedel, Cologne 1995.
• Michelangelo Pistoletto: Memoria Intelligentia Praevidentia. Edited by Helmut Friedel, Ostfildern-Ruit 1996.
• Arnulf Rainer: Bible overpainting. Edited and edited by Helmut Friedel, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000.
• Hans Hofmann. Wonder of rhythm and beauty of space. Ed. And text: Helmut Friedel. Ostfildern-Ruit 1997.
• Bronze pictorial monuments in Augsburg 1589–1606. Image and urbanity. Mühlberger, Augsburg 2001.
• Franz Ackermann / Rupprecht Geiger: Transatlantic, Bienal de São Paulo 2002. Helmut Friedel in collaboration with Anuschka Koos, Munich, 2002.
• Thomas Demand. Edited by Helmut Friedel, Poul Erik Töjner. Edited by Susanne Gaensheimer, Munich 2002.
• Urs Lüthi: Run for your life, From the series / From the series Placebos and Surrogates. Ed. And text: Helmut Friedel, arr. Urs Lüthi, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000.
• Gerhard Richter: Atlas. Edited by Helmut Friedel, Cologne 2006.
• Gerhard Richter - Red Yellow Blue. Ed. and text: Helmut Friedel, with an essay by Robert Storr, Munich 2007.
• Kandinsky: Absolutely. Abstract. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau in cooperation with the Center Pompidou, Paris and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Ed. And text: Helmut Friedel, arr.Annegret Hoberg, Munich 2008.
• Erwin Wurm. Ed. And text: Helmut Friedel, in collaboration with Erwin Wurm, Cologne 2009.
• The Lenbachhaus book: history, architecture, collections. Edited by Helmut Friedel and Matthias Mühling, Munich 2013.
• Joseph Beuys in the Lenbachhaus and the Lothar Schirmer donation. Edited by Helmut Friedel and Lothar Schirmer, Munich 2013.

Awards

The Munich evening newspaper honored him at the end of December 2013 with the honorary star of the "Star of the Year".

literature

• The Lenbachhaus Book: History, Architecture, Collections, Eds. Helmut Friedel and Matthias Mühling, Munich 2013.
• Irene Netta: Farewell to Helmut Friedel - a review, Lenbachhaus blog , accessed on March 20, 2014
• Irene Netta: Farewell to Helmut Friedel - A Review (manuscript), published in the annual report of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 2014

Web links

• Literature by and about Helmut Friedel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Simone Dattenberger: Glücksmoment Kunst , In: Münchner Merkur online, accessed on March 20, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.monopol-magazin.de/henning-schaper-wird-direktor-des-museums-frieder-burda
2. ↑ Marion Ackermann, Colored Walls. On the design of the exhibition space from 1880 to 1930, Wolfratshausen 2003, 8f.
3. ↑ Star of the Year 2013 Ehrenstern: Helmut Friedel , Abendzeitung, December 26, 2013.