Werner Spies

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Werner Spies (born April 1, 1937 in Tübingen ) is a German art historian , journalist , art mediator and museum director.

Live and act

Werner Spies attended the elementary school in Rottenburg am Neckar as the son of a Rottenburg elementary school director ; from 1952 the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Rottweil . As a high school graduate, he stated that his career aspirations were cultural writers.

From 1956 to 1958 he was a trainee at the Rottweil newspaper Schwarzwälder Volksfreund . In 1958 he worked as an editor for the features section of the Stuttgarter Zeitung .

He studied art history , philosophy and Romance studies in Vienna , Tübingen and Paris , but initially did not complete his studies with a doctorate.

In Paris, as a literary agent and editor, he met numerous French authors such as Samuel Beckett , Nathalie Sarraute , Michel Butor , Alain Robbe-Grillet , Claude Simon , Marguerite Duras , Francis Ponge , Robert Pinget and Monique Wittig . In a very short time he was accepted in the Parisian literary scene. Having lived in Paris since 1960, he settled there in 1962 and from 1964 wrote regularly for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . He influenced "an entire generation of art historians with his concise style of argument."

For the Süddeutscher Rundfunk he commissioned well-known and befriended writers to write prose texts specially for the radio, because he did not like the previous radio adaptations. In this collaboration, for example, Samuel Beckett's first radio play for German radio was created. Werner Spies worked as a translator for the works of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras, Francis Ponge and Jean Tardieu .

The encounters with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Pablo Picasso had a decisive effect on his further life. With Max Ernst , whom he met in 1966, he had a deep friendship until his death in 1976. At a time when he had already received a professorship while Norbert Kricke was director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , Spies was given a dissertation on Max Ernst's collages by the art historian and former director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy Eduard Trier at the Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität Bonn is doing his doctorate.

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Spies has published numerous monographs on 20th century art, supervised exhibitions on Surrealism and the artists Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso, and is an art critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The internationally renowned art scholar made a significant contribution to the fact that classical modernism was able to establish itself in Germany. As an art educator, he endeavors to present the work of important modern artists in monographs to a large audience, including the work of Ernst and Picasso.

Teaching, curatorial office and editing

From 1975 to 2002 Werner Spies held the chair for 20th century art at the Düsseldorf Art Academy .

From 1997 to 2000 he was director of the Center Beaubourg, now the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, where he was responsible for the redesign of the Musée National d'Art Moderne and for the presentation of the collections. His appointment as museum director generated a lot of media coverage, as such a position in French museums is actually reserved for career diplomats.

For the Center Georges Pompidou he organized the exhibitions Max Ernst, sculptures, maisons, paysages in 1998, Picasso sculpteur in 2000 and La Révolution surréaliste in 2002, which were then shown in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf . Werner Spies was Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees of the Max Ernst Foundation in Brühl and in this capacity was jointly responsible for the Max Ernst Museum , which opened in Brühl on September 4, 2005 and which has been sponsored by the Rhineland Regional Council since June 1, 2007 is located. He gave up both offices in June 2012.

On behalf of Max Ernst and the Menil Foundation in Houston / Texas , together with Sigrid and Günter Metken, he was the editor of Max Ernst's catalog of works . The artists Pablo Picasso and the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler commissioned him to compile the catalog of works of Picasso's sculptures. In 1968 Werner Spies was a member of the jury of the 4th documenta . He was commissioner of the Max Ernst exhibition in the Grand Palais in Paris in 1975, and in 1978 he curated his first exhibition Paris-Berlin 1900–1933 at the Center Beaubourg. He organized numerous exhibitions, for example on the German artist Josef Albers , on Max Ernst and on the sculptures, watercolors, pastels and drawings by Picasso. Further Picasso exhibitions took place on the subjects of The Post Guernica or Picasso - the world of children . He also supervised the retrospective on Max Ernst in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2005. In 2006 Werner Spies was responsible for the exhibition Picasso - Painting Against Time - 200 Pictures, Sculptures, Drawings in the Albertina in Vienna ; this exhibition was then shown in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf.

Spies has been publishing articles in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for forty years. Some published between September 1998 and October 2004 were slightly revised in 2005 under the title Duchamp died of a laughing fit in his bathroom - portraits (Edition Akzente) summarized.

Spies is a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry , the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts .

Art forger scandal

In 2010, Spies, as a consultant, confirmed the authenticity of some of Max Ernst's works from the fictitious “ Jäger Art Collection ” through expert reports . The works were auctioned off as authentic works by the artist, but turned out to be fakes. He found seven pictures, forged in the Max Ernst style, to be genuine. He was also financially involved in their later sale; He received commissions of 400,000 euros from the Beltracchi family alone , and further commissions in an unknown amount from the art dealer Marc Blondeau, including for his work as a member of the Art Advisory Board of the Reinhold Würth Collection , the two forged works, one allegedly by Heinrich Campendonk , the other acquired from Max Ernst. Another forged work by Max Ernst came on the market and was sold after it had been shown in an exhibition supervised by Werner Spies in the Max Ernst Museum Brühl of the LVR .

The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote in January 2012 that Spies “obviously not only received high commission payments from the art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi , but also processed these payments - as well as transfers from art dealers and gallery owners - via an account in Switzerland” . Shortly before that, the weekly newspaper Die Zeit had focused on the role of the Max Ernst specialist Spies in a “camarilla of politicians, dealers and art historians”, “questionable deals with the great surrealist” and the “problematic history” and involvement of the Max Ernst Museum Brühl of the LVR illuminated.

Honors

Werner Spies received numerous prizes; such as the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize of the German Academy for Language and Poetry , the Wilhelm Hausenstein Honor of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and the Premio internazionale arte et letterature Sergio Polillo , which is awarded in Bergamo . In 2001 he was awarded the Goethe Medal , in 2003 he received the Elsie Kühn Leitz Prize of the Franco-German Societies and the ART Cologne Prize , Cologne.

Werner Spies was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Berlin in May 2003, followed by an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen in February 2005 .

In addition, Werner Spies wears the commander's crosses of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Ordre national du Mérite , he is commander of the French Legion of Honor and holder of the Federal Cross of Merit with Star , the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Medal of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg .

He was the laudator at the award ceremony of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade to Anselm Kiefer in 2008. In 2010 Spies received the sponsorship award from the Carlo Schmid Foundation , and the laudator was Volker Schlöndorff .

Publications

  • Pour Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Festschrift for Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Edited together with Michel Leiris. Stuttgart 1965.
  • My imaginary museum / Jean Tardieu. Translated from the French by Gerhard M. Neumann and Werner Spies; with an afterword by Werner Spies. Frankfurt am Main 1965.
  • Max Ernst: Frottage. Stuttgart 1968.
  • Pablo Picasso's dream and Franco's lie. Frankfurt 1968.
  • Vasarely. Stuttgart 1969, ISBN 3-7701-0538-9 .
  • Albers. (= Art Today; Volume 15.) Stuttgart 1970, ISBN 3-7757-0007-2 .
  • Rudolf Hoflehner, Krieauer creatures. Vienna / Munich 1971, ISBN 3-7031-0193-8 .
  • Pablo Picasso: The plastic work. Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-7757-0012-9 .
  • Victor Vasarely. Cologne 1971.
  • The return of the beautiful gardener: Max Ernst 1950–1970. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-7701-0543-5 .
  • Max Ernst, Collages: Inventory and Contradiction. Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7701-0652-0 .
  • Max Ernst oeuvre catalog. Six volumes, together with Sigrid and Günter Metken. 1975-1976.
  • Max Ernst: Vox Angelica. Basel 1975.
  • Max Ernst. , Tokyo 1977.
  • as editor: Max Ernst: books and graphics; an exhibition by the Institute for Foreign Relations. Stuttgart 1977.
  • Christo, the Running Fence. November 25, 1977 - January 8, 1978, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover. Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-7757-0121-4 .
  • Max Klinger: 1857-1920; l'oeuvre gravé; exposition au Center Culturel Allemand, Goethe-Inst. Paris du 10 mars au 29 avril 1977. Stuttgart 1977.
  • Aggressiveness and exaltation. In: Max Ernst Retrospective 1979. In collaboration with Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Eduard Trier and Günter Metken. Munich / Berlin 1979.
  • Max Ernst: Frottages, collages, drawings. Zurich / Frankfurt / Munich 1978.
  • The eye at the crime scene, 80 encounters with art and artists. Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7913-0484-4 .
  • Pablo Picasso: An exhibition for the 100th birthday; Works from the Marina Picasso collection. Catalog. Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7913-0523-9 .
  • Max Ernst - Loplop: the self-portrayal of the artist. Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7913-0546-8 .
  • Picasso, the plastic work. Catalog for the exhibition “Picasso, Sculptures”. National Gallery Berlin, State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage, October 7th - November 27th 1983; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, December 11, 1983 - January 29, 1984; in collaboration with Christine Piot. Stuttgart 1983.
  • Christo: Surrounded Islands. Cologne 1984.
  • Max Ernst - les collages. Inventory and contradictions. Paris 1984.
  • Picasso: pastels, drawings, watercolors. Kunsthalle Tübingen, April 5 - May 25, 1986; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, June 6th - July 27th 1986. Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-7757-0213-X .
  • Fernando Botero: pictures, drawings, sculptures. On the occasion of the exhibition "Fernando Botero - Pictures, Drawings, Sculptures" in the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, July 4th - September 7th 1986; in the Kunsthalle Bremen , January 11th - March 1st 1987 and in the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, March 12th 1987 - May 10th 1987. Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7913-0774-6 .
  • Cars: the last pictures / Andy Warhol. Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-7757-0249-0 .
  • Continent Picasso: selected essays from two decades. Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7913-0891-2 .
  • The world of collage. Tübingen / Bern / Düsseldorf 1988.
  • Pink Before Miami: Excursions to the Art and Artists of Our Century. Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7913-1017-8 .
  • Pablo Picasso - the draftsman: 300 drawings and graphics 1893–1972. Edited by Jean Jouvet, essays by Werner Spies. Zurich 1989 ISBN 3-257-21747-1 .
  • Max Ernst- The Invention of the Surrealist Universe. New York / London 1990.
  • Trained painting - remote utopia: on French art of the 19th century. Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7757-0289-X .
  • Max Ernst: Retrospective for the 100th birthday ; on the occasion of the exhibition "Max Ernst - Retrospective for the 100th Birthday" in the Tate Gallery, London (February 13th - April 21st 1991) ... and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Center Georges Pompidou, Paris (November 28th 1991 - January 27, 1992). Ed. And with an introduction by Werner Spies; with contributions by Karin von Maur . Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7913-1122-0 .
  • Picasso, the time after Guernica: 1937–1973. On the occasion of the exhibition "Picasso - The Time After Guernica 1937–1973" organized by Heiner Bastian and Werner Spies in the Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, December 1992 - August 1993. Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3 -7757-0384-5 .
  • An Open-ended Oeuvre in Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism. The Museum of Modern Art, New York / The Menil Collection, Houston / The Art Institute of Chicago, 1993.
  • Picasso - the world of children. Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7913-1346-0 .
  • Cut through the world: essays on art and literature. Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-89322-732-6 .
  • Pablo Picasso: Paths to Sculpture; the Paris and Dinard Carnets from 1928. On the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in the Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum Duisburg (January 29 - April 2, 1995) and in the Hamburger Kunsthalle (June 16 - August 13, 1995). Munich / New York 1995. ISBN 3-7913-1436-X .
  • Max Ernst - sculptures, houses, landscapes. Center Georges Pompidou 1998, Düsseldorf Art Collection North Rhine-Westphalia 1995.
  • Passion and Eroticism: The Late Graphic Works by Pablo Picasso ; From the Piero Crommelynck Collection; Tokyo 1997.
  • "The duration of the lightning". In: Max Ernst, The Retrospective. National Gallery Berlin 1999, House of Art, Munich.
  • Art stories: of pictures and artists in the 20th century. Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4703-0 .
  • Modes d'emploi. Paris 1998.
  • Un musée du XXIe siècle. XXe / MNAM / COLLECTIONS - Une histoire matérielle. Center Pompidou, 2000.
  • Picasso sculptor. Center Georges Pompidou, 2000.
  • La Révolution surréaliste. Center Georges Pompidou, 2002.
  • Picasso at the bullfight. Cologne 2002.
  • Surrealism, the canon of a movement. Cologne 2003
  • Marcel Duchamp died of a laughing fit in his bathroom. Portraits (Edition Akzente). Edited by Michael Krüger . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich / Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-446-20581-0 . (With numerous important articles in the FAZ , published between September 1998 and October 2004.)
  • Max Ernst: Life and Work. 2005.
  • Anselm Kiefer. 2005.
  • Picasso - painting against time. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7757-1831-8 .
  • Werner Spies and C. Sylvia Weber: love at first sight. Hundreds of new acquisitions from the Würth Collection. Museum Würth, Künzelsau 2007, ISBN 978-3-89929-111-7 .
  • Max Ernst - Pictures and Sculptures in the Würth Collection. Künzelsau 2008, ISBN 978-3-89929-132-2 .
  • Max Ernst in the Würth Collection - Graphics and Books. Künzelsau 2008, ISBN 978-3-89929-131-5 (new edition)
  • Eye and word. Volume 1 - 10. Collected writings on art and literature. University Press, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-940432-32-2 .
  • Werner Spies and C. Sylvia Weber (eds.): In the collector's eye. New acquisitions in the Würth Collection from Kirchner and Schlemmer to Kiefer. Künzelsau 2009, ISBN 978-3-89929-149-0 .
  • Christo and Jeanne Claude. Shifting the boundaries of utopia. Berlin University Press, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940432-94-0 .
  • Between Oberammergau and the guillotine. Berlin University Press, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86280-018-6 .
  • My luck: memories. Carl Hanser, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-24003-2 .
  • Vox Angelica. Max Ernst and the Surrealists in America . Carl Hanser, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-446-24498-6 .
  • Archive of dreams. Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay , Ed. Werner Spies, Sieveking Verlag Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-944874-17-3
  • Max Ernst and the Birth of Surrealism , CH Beck, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3406735219 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Honorary doctorate for Werner Spies ( memento of the original from April 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uni-tuebingen.de
  2. ^ Art expert Spies gives up job at the Max Ernst Museum , welt.de from June 12, 2012, accessed on June 12, 2012
  3. ↑ Rose-Maria Gropp: Jägers-Kunstfälfungen: In the pillory are the wrong ones , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from December 15, 2010
  4. ↑ Julia Voss , Niklas Maak: When I found myself in a dark forest . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 18, 2011, p. 33.
  5. ↑ Catrin Lorch: Bird in the forest: News about the forgery process: The mediator's fees . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 13, 2012.
  6. ^ Stefan Koldehoff / Tobias Timm: Max Ernst GmbH & Co. KG. In: Die Zeit , from January 12, 2012, pp. 39-40 ( online , accessed on July 27, 2012)
  7. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  8. ↑ List of medal recipients 1975–2019. (PDF; 180 kB) State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, p. 41 , accessed on June 12, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 4, 2010, page 33 ( online version , accessed May 27, 2013)
  10. ↑ Tobias Wenzel: Werner Spies: "Max Ernst and the Birth of Surrealism" - A new world carpenter. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. March 12, 2019, accessed March 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Spies, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian, journalist and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Tübingen