The art historian and long-time Städel director Klaus Gallwitz is dead. The 91-year-old died on October 21 with his family in Karlsruhe, as his wife Bénédicte Peyrat announced on Monday. He was seen as a sponsor of once young artists such as Gerhard Richter, Markus Lüpertz or Anselm Kiefer, who are now among the great stars of the art scene. From 1974 Gallwitz was director of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main for two decades. “In the 20 years of his tenure in office, he has demonstrated his flair for contemporary art in several ways and has written exhibition history with it,” said Ina Hartwig, Frankfurt’s head of cultural affairs. The love for art began in the Dresden-born son of a geology professor at home, where artists like Emil Nolde went in and out. After studying in East Berlin, Halle / Saale, Kiel, Munich and Göttingen, the newly graduated doctor opened a small contemporary art gallery in Karlsruhe in 1957. Artists from the neighboring academy such as HAP Grieshaber or Horst Antes exhibited there.
Later, as managing director of the Badischer Kunstverein, Gallwitz organized exhibitions about Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth and Oskar Kokoschka. With the “Garden of Earthly Delights” by Horst Antes for the Federal Horticultural Show in 1967, he caused a sensation nationwide. In the same year he went to Baden-Baden as head of the State Art Gallery, where he attracted attention with a wide range of exhibitions. He presented young art in the much acclaimed “Fourteen times fourteen” series, with a different artist presented every two weeks – including assembly and dismantling on the open stage. Even during his tenure as director of the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt / Main, Gallwitz showed a feeling for quality with shows about Richard Long, Dan Flavin and the artist group Zero. Since his exhibition on Dalí in Baden-Baden in 1971, he has also been considered the inventor of the “blockbuster exhibitions”.
The Beckmann specialist promoted modernism in lectures and books and supported artists such as Joseph Beuys and Ulrich Rückriem. In 1990 a new section for modernism was opened in the Städel. Gallwitz set up a separate cabinet for Anselm Kiefer. After his time in Frankfurt he was, among other things, founding director of the Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden. Gallwitz taught as an honorary professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and worked as a consultant for the art exhibitions of the Council of Europe and the Deutsche Bank art collection.