Thomas Girst

Thomas Girst (born July 4, 1971 in Trier ) is a German author and cultural manager .

Thomas Girst

Life

Thomas Girst is the son of the CDU politician and member of the state parliament Anita Girst and the Bundesbank manager Dietmar Girst (* 1941). He has two siblings. Girst moved with his parents to Saarland in 1983 , where his father became a division manager at the Saarland Central Bank . Thomas Girst graduated from high school in Liverpool (New York) as part of a school exchange in the eleventh grade and then graduated from high school in Saarbrücken at the Rotenbühl high school . His classmate and friend at high school was the future actor Mark Waschke . He studied art history, American studies and modern German literature at the University of Hamburg and received his doctorate. From 1993 to 1994 he was a student assistant at the picture index for political iconography at the Warburg House in Hamburg. From 1995 to 2003 he stayed in New York, initially as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at New York University and at the Institute of Fine Arts. From 1998 he worked as a research assistant at Achim Moeller Fine Art. From 2000 he was head of research at the Art Science Research Laboratory under the direction of Stephen Jay Gould , Harvard University . Girst has been Head of Cultural Activities at the BMW Group , Munich, since 2003 . In 2016 he was awarded the prestigious prize for “European Cultural Manager of the Year”.

In 1992 he was the founder and until 2003 editor (with Jan Wagner ) of the outside of the element , an international anthology of contemporary prose, poetry, illustration and art. As a curator, he organized numerous exhibitions, including a. Charles Henri Ford in the Scene Gallery in New York and Marcel Duchamp in the Lenbachhaus in Munich 2012.

Girst has been married since 2001 and has three children, two sons and a daughter.

Teaching

Girst is honorary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and teaches at the Faculty of History and Art Studies at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. In addition to international guest lectures, he is a lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, at the IED Istituto Europe di Design in Venice and at the IE Business School Madrid.

Memberships

Girst was a board member of the cultural sponsoring working group, BDI, Berlin from 2005 to 2009. He is a board member of Spielmotor eV, Munich, a member of the literature committee of the Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft at the BDI and a board member of the Association for the Promotion of the Architecture Museum in Munich. Since 2012 he has been a cultural ambassador for Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg. Since 2015 he has been a member of the University Council of the University of Music and Theater Munich and of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of the House of Art. In 2016, he was appointed to the Sky Arts program advisory board. In 2017 he was appointed to the Indian Biennale Effects and Ecosystems Advisory Board and in 2018 to the Advisory Panel of the Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore.

In 2019 Girst was named Saarland Ambassador by the incumbent Prime Minister of Saarland.

Publications (selection)

Between 2000 and 2003 Girst worked as a columnist and cultural correspondent for the TAZ . Since 1995 he has written numerous scientific and journalistic articles, catalog articles, essays on culture, art and economy (including Amerasia Journal, Tate Modern, Science Ltd., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Museo Jumex, Serpentine Galleries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum of Design, Kunsthalle Schirn, ICA, ZKM Karlsruhe, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Museum of Applied Arts Cologne, State Museum Schwerin, Art in America, Frieze, Sotheby's, The Art Newspaper, FAZ, Art, NYArts, Financial Times, Frankfurter Rundschau, SZ-Magazin, Welt, Wirtschaftswoche).

author

Aftershock: The Readymade in Postwar and Contemporary American Art, New York: Dickinson, 2003 (with Francis M. Naumann) ISBN 978-1885013354
Martin Eder: Die kalte Kraft, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2004, ISBN 978-3-7757-1474-7 (German, English)
The Indefinite Duchamp, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2013, ISBN 978-3-7757-3414-1 (German, English)
The Duchamp Dictionary, London & New York: Thames and Hudson, 2014, ISBN 9780500239179 (ebf. Kor., Chin.)
Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment, Frankfurt & New York: Peter Lang, 2015, ISBN 978-3631659373
100 Secrets of the Art World, London: Koenig, 2016 (with Magnus Resch), ISBN 978-3863359614
All the time in the world, Munich: Hanser, 2019, ISBN 978-3446261877 (ebf. Ital., Kor.)

editor

The Outside of Element No. 1–11, Berlin and New York: Non Profit Art Movement (NPAM), 1992–2003
Editor-in-chief, Tout-Fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal No. 1-5, New York: Art Science Research Laboratory, 1999-2003
Marcel Duchamp in Munich 1912, Munich: Schirmer / Mosel, 2012 ISBN 9783829605915 (German, English) (with Helmut Friedl, Matthias Mühling, Felicia Rappe)
BMW Art Cars, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2014 ISBN 978-3-7757-3344-1 (German, English, French)