Kasper König

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Kasper König (2009)

Kasper König (born November 21, 1943 in Mettingen , Westphalia as Rudolf Hans König ) is a German art professor and curator . From 2000 to the end of October 2012 he was director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne .

Life

Kasper König organized various exhibitions during his studies, including a museum exhibition by Claes Oldenburg in Stockholm at the age of 23 and published numerous books. König was Assistant Professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax , Canada from 1972 to 1976 . In 1985, although without a formal degree, he was appointed professor at the newly established chair for “Art and the Public” at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . In 1988 he became a professor at the State University of Fine Arts - Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main , which he headed as rector just one year later. In addition, König was the founding director of the Portikus exhibition hall in Frankfurt am Main.

Together with Klaus Bußmann , he initiated the Skulptur.Projekte in Münster in 1976 , which takes place every ten years at the same time as the documenta . The numerous large-scale exhibitions that König curated include Westkunst 1981 in Cologne, Von hier aus - Two months of new German art in Düsseldorf 1984, and the EXPO 2000 In-Between Architecture art project in Hanover. In 2000, the former Cologne Head of Culture, Marie Hüllenkremer König, appointed director of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. His contract was extended for a further five years in 2005 beyond the pension limit, in 2009 for a further two years and in March 2010 until the end of October 2012. He was officially part of the Board of Trustees for awarding the Roswitha Haftmann Prize . In 2012, after 12 years in office, König said goodbye with his very personal special exhibition. One wish always remains. Kasper König takes stock . He was succeeded on November 1, 2012 by Philipp Kaiser . In 2014, König curated the tenth edition of the Manifesta traveling biennial , which took place from June to October 2014 at the Hermitage Art Museum in Saint Petersburg .

In 2012, König handed over his private archive of around 40 meters of shelves (in particular correspondence with artists and their project sketches as well as material collections from Isa Genzken , Claes Oldenburg , Gerhard Richter , and Thomas Schütte ) to the Central Archive of the International Art Trade (ZADIK) . On the occasion of his farewell, two charity auctions were held for the benefit of the Museum Ludwig. In this way, König made a contribution to the future of the house, and the funds of the art foundation established in 2009 at the Museum Ludwig were strengthened. Around 70 works by well-known artists were put up for auction by König, including Thomas Schütte, Isa Genzken, Wade Guyton , On Kawara , Andreas Gursky , Matthew Barney , Thomas Struth , Rosemarie Trockel , Joel Shapiro , Fischli / Weiss . The two auctions in Cologne and London at Sotheby’s brought in around 200,000 euros and a little over 2 million euros, respectively, which went exclusively to the museum support association.

Lisa Endriß and Kasper König, Münchner Kammerspiele 2018

Since 2016 he has been inviting artists and curators to a panel discussion at the Münchner Kammerspiele every two months . The participants so far have included Thomas Bayrle , Okwui Enwezor , Alexandra Pirici and Lisa Endriß . In the discussion on November 12, 2018, one participant, the artist and postmigrant Cana Bilir-Meier, felt disparaged by König and took this as an opportunity to publish a letter of protest. König's behavior was portrayed in the press as symptomatic of the discrimination against minorities in the art world.

King's son Leo runs a gallery in New York, his son Johann is a gallery owner in Berlin. The art bookseller Walther König is Kasper König's brother. Kasper König was married to the Berlin gallery owner Barbara Weiss , who died on New Year's Eve 2016 . He was previously married to the actress and illustrator Edda Köchl . He lives in Berlin.

Awards

In 1998, König was awarded the Binding Culture Prize. In 2005 he received an honorary doctorate from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. In 2009 he received the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York for his "groundbreaking exhibitions" and his "rigorous program" at the Museum Ludwig. According to a study by the specialist magazine Art Review 2009, König found himself as a newcomer to place 60 on a list of the 100 most influential people in the industry. In 2013, Koenig received the honorary award from the Cologne Cultural Council as part of the 4th Cologne Culture Prize for his "knowledgeable leadership and the realization of outstanding exhibitions that have helped to achieve a high reputation in the international art world and also among the Cologne citizens".

Exhibitions

Kasper König with Claes Oldenburg at a press conference in June 2012 for the opening of the exhibition Claes Oldenburg - The Sixties in the Museum Ludwig

Quotes

“I'm not interested in conveying art. Art cannot be conveyed. I also don't want to theorize and ask what art is. However, I would like to get everyone to ask questions of art themselves. "

- Kasper König in art , October 1984 edition

Trivia

According to his own statements, he gave himself the first name Kasper himself at the time in order to avoid being called for military service - the mail could not be delivered this way. In Walter Grasskamp's publication about König, the same explains in an interview that he gave himself the name because the soft pronunciation of 'Rudolf' - with Rudolf Nureyev - in the London gay scene around the gallery owner Robert Fraser in the 1960s “got on his mind "And you could not pronounce Kasper" so softly ".

literature

  • Anna Brohm, Valeska Schneider (Ed.): One wish always remains. 12 years Museum Ludwig. A selection. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-86335-248-6 . (Published on the occasion of Kasper König's farewell as director of the Museum Ludwig)
  • Sandra Danicke : Kasper König, Small Formats 1987–1997. Galerie Bernd Slutzky, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-9805670-0-1 .
  • Walter Grasskamp : Kasper König (Energies / Synergies 13). Text by Richard Artschwager , afterword by Regina Wyrwoll. Bookstore Walther König, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-86335135-9
  • Jörg Streichert, Carmen Strzelecki (ed.): Best art. The life of Kasper König in 15 exhibitions. Strzelecki Books, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-942680-56-1 (German), ISBN 978-3-942680-57-8 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Palm: Main committee makes important personnel decisions. Signing of contracts for heads of Museum Ludwig and Schauspiel decided. City of Cologne - Office for Press and Public Relations, November 8, 2011, accessed on November 8, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Kasper König curates Manifesta. In: monopoly. Magazine for art and life art ticker, from August 16, 2013.
  3. ↑ Personal details : Kasper König hands over valuable private archive. in: Die Welt online , September 7, 2012, accessed on September 11, 2012.
  4. ↑ http://www.museenkoeln.de/museum-ludwig/veranstaltung.asp?s=724&v=7244  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.museenkoeln.de  
  5. ↑ http://www.kunstmarkt.com/pagesmag/kunst/_id272040-/marktberichte_detail.html?_q= kunstmarkt.com September 28, 2012
  6. ^ Hanna Styrie: Kasper König. The creative cross-head goes. In: Kölnische Rundschau of October 15, 2012, accessed on October 17, 2012.
  7. ↑ https://www.muenchner-kammerspiele.de/inszenierung/kasper-koenig
  8. ↑ Video: Kasper König & Lisa Endriß - Artist Talk at the Munich Kammerspiele on January 16, 2018 [1]
  9. ^ Svantje Karich: Racism in the art business: "It pisses us off". In: Die Welt from December 12, 2018.
  10. ^ Christiane Meixner: Racism in cultural institutions - anger at the company. In: Der Tagesspiegel from December 7, 2018
  11. ↑ Anita Blasberg: We up here. zeit.de from February 15, 2008, accessed on November 3, 2012.
  12. ↑ King's Family In: Die Zeit , No. 42 of October 12, 2006.
  13. ↑ Edda Köchl in the Internet Movie Database (English).
  14. ↑ Kasper König becomes a curator in St. Petersburg.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. WDR 3 (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) cultural news from August 15, 2013, accessed on August 16, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wdr3.de  
  15. ^ Guggenheim - Lifetime Achievement Award ( Memento from October 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
  16. ↑ Kölner Kulturrat - Current reports: Kölner Kulturpreis 2013 , accessed on June 22, 2013.
  17. ↑ Sniper and Beuys Butter in FAZ from June 28, 2014, page 9
  18. ↑ Homepage Museum Folkwang Upcoming exhibitions , accessed on September 13, 2015
  19. ↑ http://www.muensterschezeitung.de/Lokales/Staedte/Muenster/2824982-Kasper-Koenig-bei-Rotary-Clubs-Bitte-kein-westfaelisches-Florida
  20. ^ Walter Grasskamp: Kasper König. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2013. pp. 27–28.

Web links

Commons : Kasper König  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME King, Kasper
ALTERNATIVE NAMES König, Rudolf Hans (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art professor and curator
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Mettingen