Karen Pontoppidan, Professor of Jewelry and Appliances, will become the new President of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. She replaces the 67-year-old Dieter Rehm, professor of photography, who has headed the Academy since 2010. Born in Denmark in 1968, Pontoppidan is considered one of the most renowned jewelery artists of her generation. She was educated in Schwäbisch Gmünd and studied with Otto Künzli at the Munich Art Academy. In 2015 she was appointed to the Munich University and was Vice President of the University Management from 2016 to 2020. Pontoppidan has also curated numerous exhibitions, most recently in 2019 “Jewelry” in the New Collection in the Pinakothek der Moderne.
The university council of the art academy is also changing. Andrea Lissoni and Regine Thiess were appointed as new members. Lissoni has been the artistic director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich since 2020 and has been trying ever since to include more young artists and students in Munich in his program. Regine Thiess comes from a family of collectors and built up her personal collection parallel to the Scharpff Collection, in which the work of women is a focal point. Thiess is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pinakothek der Moderne and has close ties to the Munich Art Academy through her many years on the board of the Art Academy Foundation.