Michael Semff

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Michael Semff (born January 19, 1950 in Bad Tölz ) is a German art historian .

Life

After studying art history, classical archeology and musicology at the University of Munich , he received his doctorate in 1977 with a thesis on medieval sculpture under the director of the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, Theodor Müller . This was followed by a traineeship at the State Museums in Bavaria. He then worked from 1980 to 1983 as a scholarship holder and assistant at the Art History Institute in Florence on the history of medieval sculpture in Italy. In 1984, Semff became a consultant for Italian drawings at the State Gallery in Stuttgart, and on February 1, 1992, he moved to the Department of Art of the 20th Century as Senior Curator at the State Collection of Graphics in Munich. He was director of this institute from September 1, 2000 until he retired at the end of May 2015. During his tenure, the graphic collection in the Pinakothek der Moderne received its own exhibition space for the first time since the Second World War.

Semff lives in Munich and is married to the graphic designer and publisher Caroline Sieveking, with whom he has two sons.

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In addition to his work on medieval sculpture, Semff was interested in contemporary art from the start. During a stay in Vienna as part of his studies he got to know the sculptors Joannis Avramidis and Fritz Wotruba . He was also close friends with the painter and draftsman Rudolf Schoofs . During his work at the State Graphic Collection in Munich, he organized numerous exhibitions and catalogs from Édouard Vuillard to Georg Baselitz . One focus of his work is devoted to American art after 1945, from Philip Guston to Terry Winters .

Publications (selection)

  • Studies on Romanesque wooden sculpture in the eastern Alpine countries , dissertation University of Munich 1976.
    • Partial print as: The Triumphal Cross Group in the Seckau Cathedral . In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 30/31, 1977/78, pp. 47-88 and the wooden reliefs of the doors of the Gurker west portal . In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kunst und Denkmalspflege 33, 1979, pp. 1–16.
  • Charles Despiau. Drawings. Catalog State Graphic Collection Munich. Munich 1998.
  • Joannis Avramidis. Sculptures and drawings. Catalog State Graphic Collection Munich. Munich 2005.
  • with Kurt Zeitler (Ed.): Artists draw - collectors donate. 250 years of the State Graphic Collection in Munich . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2008, ISBN 978-3-7757-2179-0 .
  • Al Taylor Prints. Catalog raisonné . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2013.

literature

  • Kurt Zeitler (Ed.): Lines - Music of the Visible. Festschrift for Michael Semff . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-422-07322-7 (p. 424 ff. List of publications).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christa Sigg: Michael Semff: Michelangelo at hand. Abendzeitung , May 11, 2015, accessed on January 1, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Semff, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Tölz