Hubertus Gassner

Hubertus Gaßner (* 1950 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German art historian and curator . From 2006 to 2016 was the director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle .

Live and act

Hubertus Gaßner studied art history, philosophy and sociology in Marburg , Heidelberg , Munich and Hamburg . In 1982 he received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg with a thesis on the Russian constructivist Alexander Rodschenko . From 1971 to 1981 he was an active member of the Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst in Berlin , headed the documenta archive in Kassel from 1989 to 1992 and was chief curator at the Haus der Kunst in Munich from 1993 to 2002 . He was director of the Folkwang Museum in Essen from 2002 to 2005. Since February 1, 2006, he has been director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle as the successor to Uwe M. Schneede . In addition, since the 2007/08 winter semester he has been an honorary professor in the field of theory and history at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts .

The cube in front of the Contemporary Gallery on the grounds of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2007

The exhibition The Black Square - Homage to Malevich , which opened in Hamburg in spring 2007 on his initiative, caused a sensation , for which the installation artist Gregor Schneider created a cube hung with black fabric, the Cube Hamburg 2007 , on the forecourt of the Contemporary Gallery, which is part of the Kunsthalle had designed. Since the black cube was not only reminiscent of the Suprematist painting The Black Square , but also of the Muslim Kaaba in Mecca , terrorist attacks were feared, but they did not occur. In the spring of 2009, Hubertus Gaßner and Rainer Moritz , the director of the Hamburger Literaturhaus , created the joint series of events entitled “Description of Images”, in which writers present their own reflections on images from the Kunsthalle's collection. The “picture descriptions” were also published under the title “Ut pictura poesis”.

In 2009 and 2010, Gaßner resisted the rigid austerity - caused by the Great Recession - of the Senate of Beust III , which through the then Senator for Culture Karin von Welck and the Board of Trustees of the Hamburger Kunsthalle Foundation, the sale of pictures from the collection and a had requested the temporary closure of the Galerie der Gegenwart. This was justified with the statement that the fire dampers had to be renovated. The dispute became known nationwide.

Hubertus Gaßner's successor - who retired from this position after reaching the age limit - was the previous director of the Wallace Collection in London, Christoph Martin Vogtherr , on October 1, 2016 .

Publications (selection)

Books

• Culture and art in the GDR since 1970 . Anabas, Giessen 1977, ISBN 3-87038-045-4 .
• Between revolutionary art and socialist realism. Documents and comments. Art debates in the Soviet Union from 1917–1934 . DuMont Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1116-8 .
• Alexander Rodschenko Construction 1920 or the Art of Organizing Life . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-596-23916-8 .
• Modern art. The Funkkolleg for understanding contemporary art . With Franz-Joachim Verspohl and Monika Wagner (eds.). 2 volumes. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-499-55517-4 .

Exhibition catalogs

• Christoph Vitali , Hubertus Gaßner: Introduction to the exhibition in Munich . In: Serious Games. The Spirit of Romanticism in German Art 1790–1990 . Haus der Kunst Munich , February 4 to May 1, 1995; with the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and in cooperation with the National Gallery of Scotland , the Hayward Gallery , London, and the Nationalgalerie , Berlin, ISBN 3-927789-74-7 .
• Hubertus Froning: Watercolors and drawings from the 19th century in the Museum Folkwang Essen . Inventory catalog Museum Folkwang Essen, (Ed. Museum Folkwang Essen, Hubertus Gaßner). Ed. Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2005, ISBN 3-932353-94-3
• Hubertus Gaßner (Ed.): The Black Square. Tribute to Malevich . Hatje Cantz Verlag Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7757-1948-3 .
• Hubertus Gaßner u. a .: Bonjour Russia. French and Russian masterpieces from 1870–1925 from Moscow and St. Petersburg , museum kunst palast , September 15, 2007 to January 6, 2008. Catalog Palace Ed. Europe, Bad Breisig 2007, ISBN 978-3-938051-91-7 .
• Hubertus Gaßner, Viola Hildebrand-Schat (Ed.): Manet - See . Exhibition catalog Hamburger Kunsthalle, Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2016, ISBN 3-7319-0325-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hubertus Gaßner in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Hamburger Kunsthalle. Yesterday and today by Hubertus Gaßner and Ulrich Luckhardt
• Literature by and about Hubertus Gaßner in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Art aspects about Hubertus Gaßner
• Museums are never allowed to sell works of art , Hamburger Abendblatt, October 1, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hubertus Gaßner joins kunstmarkt.com as the new director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle , accessed on November 13, 2010
2. ↑ ^{a b} Hubertus Gaßner hfbk-hamburg.de, accessed on November 12, 2010
3. ↑ Future director of the Kunsthalle: Hubertus Gaßner introduces himself at welt.de, accessed on November 12, 2010
4. ^ Die Kaaba von Hamburg welt.de, March 5, 2007, accessed on November 14, 2010
5. ↑ Hubertus Gaßner, Daniel Koep, Rainer Moritz (eds.): Ut pictura poesis. Bid descriptions - writers about pictures in the Hamburger Kunsthalle . Hamburger Kunsthalle, archive link ( Memento from April 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ); Retrieved September 14, 2012
6. ↑ Holger True: Hamburg's Decade. How Hamburg was able to rise to the status of a city ​​of culture , Abendblatt.de from December 31, 2019
7. ↑ Hanno Rauterberg : The big sale zeit.de, December 8, 2009, accessed on November 14, 2010
8. ↑ Niklas Maak : Can there ever be an end to stepping back? faz.net, July 20, 2010, accessed November 14, 2010
9. ↑ Gaßner: You can only say that “from flap to flap”, Abendblatt.de/dpa, June 3, 2010, accessed on November 14, 2010
10. ^ Dorit Koch: New director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Recollection of the collection , art-magazin.de, January 13, 2016, accessed on April 12, 2016