Udo Kultermann

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Udo Kultermann (born October 14, 1927 in Stettin ; † February 9, 2013 in New York ) was a German art historian , museum director and author of numerous books on the history of art and architecture .

life and work

Kultermann was born the son of Georg Kultermann and his wife Charlotte (née Schultz). He studied after the Second World War, art history, classical archeology and literature, first from 1947 to 1950 in Greifswald , then to 1953 in Munster , where with a thesis on the Italian Baroque sculptor, he Gabriel Grupello Dr. phil. received his doctorate. He then moved to Bremen, where he was given a traineeship in a museum for a year. There he discovered an unknown diary and other writings by Kasimir Malewitsch and - based on Paul Scheerbart - dealt with utopian architecture. In 1957 Kultermann found a job in the Amerikahaus Bremen. There he was responsible for program design in northwest Germany and organized lectures and courses on American art using the example of Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock . During this time he met the art publisher Günther Wasmuth , who encouraged him and in which Kultermann's first book appeared in 1958: Baukunst der Gegenwart. Documents of the new building in the world.

In 1959 he was appointed director of the Morsbroich municipal museum in Leverkusen , which quickly developed into a leading house for contemporary painting through him. In a first exhibition he showed Max Bill in the summer of 1959 . At the beginning of 1960 the trend-setting exhibition “Monochrome Painting” (which he himself called “New Painting” in the catalog) took place, with works by Lucio Fontana , Otto Piene and Yves Klein, among others . In this context, in 1962 - in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum , Amsterdam - he followed up with a comprehensive retrospective on Kasimir Malevich . At the architecture-historical-oriented exhibitions The Glass Chain. Visionary architectures from the circle around Bruno Taut (1963) and through the constructivist builder of modern film Sergej Eisenstein , he included film screenings and architectural buildings in the exhibition concept.

From 1961 onwards, Kultermann organized the Morsbroich Art Days, a 3-day festival that was to encompass the entire city and its citizens. Local and internationally known artists took part in the fields of dance, music, film, theater, graphics and painting, and Max Bense and Theodor W. Adorno were invited to lectures . He recommended himself as an art consultant with the installation of sculptures, including in the courtyard of the former Girozentrale in Düsseldorf with the sculpture Wasserwald by Norbert Kricke .

While still working at the museum, he made numerous lecture tours to America, Asia and Africa, took part in congresses and gave lectures at universities. In 1964 he moved to the USA, where he became Professor of Art History and Architectural Theory at Washington University in St. Louis in 1967 . Since 1975 he was married to Judith Danoof. In 1994 he retired. He died after a long illness.

In pioneering studies, Kultermann examined contemporary architecture in Africa and the Middle East. Since his early years, his other interests were in European art and architecture as well as contemporary American art. He was among the first art historians to seriously study contemporary female performance artists.

Fonts

  • Gabriel de Grupello. o. O. 1953 DNB 480440700 (Dissertation University of Münster, Philosophical Faculty, July 25, 1953, 109 counted sheets, 4 [typescript]).
  • Wassili and Hans Luckhardt . Buildings and designs. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1958.
  • Contemporary Architecture: Documents of New Building in the World. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1958.
  • Dynamic architecture. Lucas Cranach, Munich 1959.
  • New building in Japan. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1960.
  • New building in Africa. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1963.
  • New building in the world. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1963.
  • Young German sculptors. Kupferberg, Mainz 1963.
  • The key to today's architecture. Econ, Düsseldorf, 1963.
  • History of art history. The way of a science. Econ, Düsseldorf, 1966, new edition by Prestel, Munich 1995, ISBN 978-3-7913-1056-5 .
  • New dimensions in plastic. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1967, new edition. 1982, ISBN 978-3-8030-3002-3 .
  • Ed .: Sobotka Müller . Building projects II. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1967.
  • Contemporary architecture. Edited by Josef Adolf Schmoll called Eisenwerth , series: Kunst der Welt. Holle, Baden-Baden 1967, new edition. 1980, ISBN 978-3-8735-5206-7 .
  • Gabriel Grupello . Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 1968 (= dissertation) ?
  • New forms of the image. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1969; New edition 1982, ISBN 978-3-8030-3020-7 .
  • with Werner Hofmann : The architecture of our time: The development since 1850. Burkhard-Verl. Ernst Heyer, Essen, 1969; New edition 1986, ISBN 978-3-8711-7020-1 .
  • Life and art. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1970, new edition 1982, ISBN 978-3-8030-3005-4 .
  • Ed .: Kenzo Tange : Architecture and Urban Development 1946-1969. Verlag für Architektur Artemis, Zurich 1970; New edition by Artemis & Winkler 1997, ISBN 978-3-7608-8042-6 .
  • Radical realism. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1972; New edition 1984, ISBN 978-3-8030-3004-7 .
  • Architecture in the 20th century. DuMont, Cologne 1977, new edition. 1991, ISBN 978-3-7701-0920-3 ; 6. revised u. exp. Ed., Springer, Vienna / New York 2003, ISBN 978-3-2118-3887-7 .
  • Third world architects. Building between tradition and a new beginning. DuMont, Cologne 1980, ISBN 978-3-77011182-4 .
  • Architecture in the Seventies. Architectural Book, New York 1980.
  • Language of silence. 3 essays. 1982, ISBN 978-3-92181826-8 .
  • Contemporary architecture in Eastern Europe. DuMont, Cologne 1985, ISBN 978-3-7701-1554-9 .
  • Art and reality. Scaneg, Munich-Hadern 1991, ISBN 978-3-8923-5201-3 .
  • with François Barré, Ambros Uchtenhagen : Gottfried Honegger , Art as Architecture. Ed. Waser, Weiningen Zurich 1993, ISBN 978-3-9080-8034-3 .
  • The Maxentius Basilica. VDG, Weimar 1996, ISBN 978-3-9297-4298-5 .
  • Little history of art theory. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 978-3-5341-4062-6 .
  • with Paola Antonelli , Stephen Van Dyk: World exhibitions 1933–2005: Architecture Design Graphics. Edited by Andrew Garn. DVA, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-4210-3696-4 .
  • ZERO Foundation (Ed.): 4321 ZERO. with texts by U. Kultermann a. a., Richter + Fey, Düsseldorf 2012, ISBN 978-3-9412-6346-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ René Drommert: Why do we celebrate the stitch? Monochrome in Leverkusen . In: Die Zeit of April 29, 1960.
personal data
SURNAME Kultermann, Udo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American art historian and curator
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 2013
Place of death New York City