Category: Museum Dirctor
Nationality: German
Last Year: Reentry (55 in 2003)
The job that Udo Kittelmann took on this year, as director of Berlin’s Nationalgalerie, is no easy one. The Nationalgalerie consists of five very different institutions, including the Hamburger Bahnhof, Europe’s largest museum of contemporary art. Funding is scarce and the staffing level is alarming, yet with his opening shows he set a new standard and gave these museums a new life. Combining popularity with glamour, he turned the Hamburger Bahnhof from a museum that was marred by its reliance on collectors and their influence into an exciting and fresh exhibition space. Meanwhile a large-scale retrospective of work by Thomas Demand has reopened Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Neue Nationalgalerie space to rave reviews.