Beat Wyss (born 1947) is a Swiss

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

, professor ordinarius for

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and

media theory Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but it mos ...

Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) is a state art college founded in 1992 in Karlsruhe, Germany. It focuses on media art, communication design, product design, exhibition design and scenography, art research, and media philoso ...

, Germany, and member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Life

Beat Wyss was born in 1947 in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. He studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

, where he served as assistant lecturer. In 1980, he was awarded a three-year grant by the Swiss National Fund for research stays at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

(FU) and at the Istituto Svizzero di Roma. From 1986 to 1989 he worked as an editor for the publishing house Artemis (Zürich/Munich) and taught history of architecture and cultural history at the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

(ETH). After a visiting professorship at

Bonn University The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Will ...

and a scholarship at the

Getty Center The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, United States, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997, and is well known for its architecture, garde ...

in Santa Monica, Wyss was appointed professor for art history by

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began ...

in 1990. Following a visiting professorship at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, Ithaca, N.Y., in 1996, he was appointed ordinarius for art history by

Stuttgart University The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in Civil engineering, civil ...

in 1997. In 1999, he was visiting professor at

Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...

, Denmark. In 2001, Wyss was awarded the Art Price of the city of

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. Since 2004 he has been holding the chair in art history and media theory at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, where he also served as speaker of the Graduate School „Bild – Körper – Medium“ (Image – Body -Medium) from 2003 to 2009. From 2008 to 2011 he was professorial fellow at the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA) in Zürich.www.sik-isea.ch

Publications

* ''Renaissance als Kulturtechnik.'' Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg 2013. * ''Die Pariser Weltausstellung 1889. Bilder von der Globalisierung.'' Insel, Frankfurt 2010. * ''Nach den großen Erzählungen.'' Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2009. * ''Die Wiederkehr des Neuen.'' Philo & PhiloFineArts / Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 2007. * ''Vom Bild zum Kunstsystem.'' 2 volumes, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2006. * ''Die Welt als T-Shirt. Zu Ästhetik und Geschichte der Medien.'' DuMont, Cologne 1997. * ''Der Wille zur Kunst. Zur ästhetischen Mentalität der Moderne'', DuMont, Cologne 1996. ** Spanish translation: ''La voluntad de arte.'' Madrid 2010. * ''Trauer der Vollendung. Zur Geburt der Kulturkritik.'' Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1985. ** reprint: DuMont, Cologne 1997. ** English translation (by Karoline Dobson Saltzwedel): ''Hegel's Art History and the Critique of Modernity.'' Cambridge University Press, New York 1999.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyss, Beat 1947 births Living people Academics from Basel-Stadt Academic staff of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design