The Städel Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung have a new director. On 1 October 2016, Dr Philipp Demandt will begin his work at the head of the three cultural institutions of Frankfurt. The art historian was chosen within the framework of an intensive national and international search for a successor to Max Hollein. He was previously the director of the Alte Nationalgalerie, a museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz. At the press conference held today on the occasion of his assumption of office, Demandt (b. 1971) was introduced by Prof Dr Nikolaus Schweickart, chairman of the Städel Museum administration, and Dr Ina Hartwig, deputy mayor in charge of culture of the city of Frankfurt am Main.
The chairman of the Städel Museum administration Prof Dr Nikolaus Schweickart, who presided over the search, commented: “Philipp Demandt was the candidate we most favoured for this position. It was his comprehensive experience with modern culture management and his qualified expertise as an art historian and curator with a keen instinct for special themes and discoveries that made him the candidate of choice for the job. We look forward to working with him.”
“I am delighted we were able to win the renowned art historian Philipp Demandt for the post of director of the three institutions. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is one of the leading exhibition halls, and its clear and distinctive profile is appreciated far beyond the boundaries of Frankfurt and Germany. It represents an outstanding complement to the collection focuses of the richly traditional Städel Museum and Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung. The continuation of the effective interaction between these three large art institutions is sensible and important for the cultural development of the city and the region. I wish Philipp Demandt all the best and much success for his new work”, added Dr Ina Hartwig, Frankfurt’s mayor in charge of culture.
Dr Philipp Demandt himself took advantage of the opportunity offered by the press conference to introduce himself to the gathering of media representatives as the new director of the three Frankfurt art institutions: “To head the Städel, Schirn and Liebieghaus as director and develop their successful work further in all its diversity is a challenge I accept with great pleasure. I thank the magistrate of the city of Frankfurt and the administration of the Städel Museum for the confidence they are placing in me. The Städel Museum, the Schirn and the Liebieghaus are three prominent art institutions that delight the public with their progressive exhibitions and projects and demonstrate again and again how we can – and must – conceive of vibrant engagement with art in today’s times. The preservation of the three institutions’ strong and distinct profiles and the continued exploitation of the synergies between them are matters beyond debate. All three have broadly qualified teams whose outstanding work you are familiar with and will encounter once again in the coming weeks in our large autumn exhibitions. I am greatly looking forward to this cooperation.”
Born in Constance in 1971, Demandt studied art history, classical archaeology and media science and gained his doctorate in 2001 at the Institute of History and Cultural Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin with a thesis on the execution and reception of the portraits of Queen Louise by Johann Gottfried Schadow and Christian Daniel Rauch and the historical mythology of the Prussian state as mirrored in the “Queen Louise cult”. After serving as exhibition assistant at the Bröhan Museum in 2002, Demandt became a department head with the Kulturstiftung der Länder. There his responsibilities included advising and supporting German culture institutions on the purchase and financing of artworks from pre- and early history to the nineteenth century as well as on exhibition projects. From 2007 to 2010 he also co-curated the Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg Prussian exhibition “Louise: Life and Myth of the Queen”. He planned and directed the magazine “Arsprototo” published by the Kulturstiftung der Länder, as well as the foundation’s scholarly publication series “Patrimonia”, and published numerous articles on the history of art and culture, for example in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Welt.
In January 2012, Demandt was appointed director of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. There he drew attention to himself with a comprehensive new concept for the display collection and a number of exhibitions that were as innovative as they were successful. Among the highlights of the shows staged under his direction were “Rembrandt Bugatti”, “Impressionism – Expressionism: Art at a Turning Point” and, most recently, “The Monk Has Returned”, a special presentation on the restoration of Caspar David Friedrich’s masterworks Monk by the Sea and The Abbey in the Oakwood. The Alte Nationalgalerie holds paintings and sculptures dating from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Its collection is part of the Nationalgalerie, which also encompasses the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, the Museum Berggruen and the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg.
In Frankfurt Dr Philipp Demandt is succeeding Max Hollein, who assumed his post as director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) on 1 June 2016.