Jean-Christophe Ammann (14 January 1939 – 13 September 2015) was a Swiss art historian and

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

Early life and education

Born in Berlin, Ammann, son of a chemist, grew up in a German-speaking family in

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

. He actually wanted to become a doctor, but after his

Matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

in 1959 at the Collège Saint-Michel he studied

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetics ...

Biblical archaeology Biblical archaeology is an academic school and a subset of Biblical studies and Levantine archaeology. Biblical archaeology studies archaeological sites from the Ancient Near East and especially the Holy Land (also known as Land of Israel and ...

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 ...

. In 1966, he received his doctorate from the

University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg (; ) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland. The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg ...

on the work of Louis Moilliet.

Career

From 1966 to 1968, Ammann was an assistant to

Harald Szeemann Harald Szeemann (11 June 1933 – 18 February 2005) was a Swiss curator, artist, and art history, art historian. Having curated more than 200 exhibitions, many of which have been characterized as groundbreaking, Szeemann is said to have helped red ...

at the

Kunsthalle Bern The Kunsthalle Bern is a ''Kunsthalle'' (art exposition hall) on the Helvetiaplatz in Bern, Switzerland. It was built in 1917–1918 by the Kunsthalle Bern Association and opened on October 5, 1918. Since then, it has been the site of numerous ex ...

. He then directed the

Kunstmuseum Luzern Kunstmuseum Luzern (Museum of Art Lucerne) is an art museum founded in 1932, is located within the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre (or KKL Luzern). It is one of the most important art museums in Switzerland, known for its temporary rotating ...

until 1977. In 1971, he was Swiss commissioner for the ''Biennale Paris'' and in 1972 he worked with Harald Szeemann on the conception of

documenta 5 documenta 5 was the fifth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 30 June and 8 October 1972 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Harald Szeemann. The title of the exhibition was: Befr ...

, which "went down in exhibition history as the most interesting and influential" In 1978, he was co-organiser of ''Arte Natura'' in the international pavilion of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Kunsthalle Basel

From 1978 to 1988, he took over the management of the

Kunsthalle Basel Kunsthalle Basel is a contemporary art gallery in Basel, Switzerland. As Switzerland's oldest and still most active institution for contemporary art established in the year of 1872, Kunsthalle Basel forms a vital part of Basel's cultural centre ...

. Among the conditions of his inauguration were better lighting conditions, partial removal of the wooden panelling on the walls, a continuous coat of unbroken white paint. He held six exhibitions a year with international as well as Swiss artists, including Gilbert & George, Martin Disler, Helmut Federle, Mario Merz and Rolf Winnewisser, whom he had already presented in Lucerne. With a penchant for painting, Ammann presented Enzo Cucchi, Nicola de Maria, Francesco Clemente, Walter Dahn, Rainer Fetting, Georg Baselitz in Basel. Miriam Cahn had the first institutional exhibition in 1983 with charcoal drawings. In 1987, he showed light installations by

James Turrell James Turrell (born May 6, 1943) is an American artist known for his work within the Light and Space movement. He is considered the "master of light" often creating art installations that mix natural light with artificial color through openings ...

"opening our earth to the cosmic". In 1988 he opened the Kunsthalle to

Richard Serra Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale Abstract art, abstract sculptures made for Site-specific art, site-specific landscape, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings, a ...

, who covered each of the long side walls of the skylight hall with a strip of the densest graffiti hatching and achieved a fantastic change in the spatial effect. His 60 or so exhibitions in Basel followed a wide variety and were not restricted by formal or ideological boundaries. The works shown asserted themselves "... through "quality", for every art lover a fixed but never quite definable quantity. For Ammann, it is expressed, among other things, in the sum of the "energy" that a creative work must possess." In addition, he ensured that a sculpture by Serra was installed in Basel's Wenkenpark. Since 1981 Ammann was a member of the in Basel.

Museum for modern art

In 1989, Ammann moved to Frankfurt and opened there as director on 6 June 1991 the new museum designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein designed

Museum für Moderne Kunst The Museum für Moderne Kunst (''Museum of Modern Art''), or short MMK, in Frankfurt, was founded in 1981 and opened to the public 6 June 1991. The museum was designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein. It is part of Frankfurt's Museumsuf ...

. The new museum gained international renown with a new form of exhibition, the ''"Szenenwechsel"'', which was held every six months and took place a total of twenty times with the help of private sponsors. During the ''Szenenwechsel'', the museum's holdings were rearranged every six months and enriched with new acquisitions, loans or special exhibitions. Ammann headed the house until the end of 2001, his successor was . In 1995, Ammann was commissioner of the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale. From 1989 to 1997, he was chairman of the board of the , since 1992 lecturer at the universities of Frankfurt and Gießen and since 1998

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

. In 1999, Ammann was commissioned by

Deutsche Börse Deutsche Börse AG (), or the Deutsche Börse Group, is a German multinational corporation that offers a marketplace for organizing the trading of shares and other securities. It is also a transaction services provider, giving companies and inv ...

to build up a collection of artistic photographs. He was also a member of the advisory board of the art collection of the Swiss banking house

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

. As curator, he was responsible, among other things, for the exhibition ''Crossart. Van Gogh to Beuys'' at the in Bonn (2005) and ''In the Beginning was the Word... - On Language in Contemporary Art'' at the

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a museum for modern and contemporary art in Munich, Bavaria. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. It was built between 1933 an ...

in Munich (2006; with Corinna Thierolf). Between 2010 and 2015, he curated (with Anna Wesle) several exhibitions at the Museum Franz Gertsch in Burgdorf/Switzerland and at the Galerie Perpétuel in Frankfurt.

Other activities

* UBS Art Collection, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2005)

Legacy

After leaving the Museum für Moderne Kunst in 2001, Ammann left the museum several works from his private collection as well as his collected correspondence, which was inventoried in the ''Archive Jean-Christophe Ammann'' and documents 35 years of his curatorial activity.

Personal life

Ammann was married to the artist Judith Ammann and lived in Frankfurt. He died in September 2015 at the age of 76.

Curations

Ammann curated other exhibitions (selection): : * '', Anke Röhrscheid, Elly Strick,'' Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal, Basel (2007). * ''Songlines,

Balthasar Burkhard Balthasar Burkhard (24 December 1944 – 16 April 2010) was a Swiss photographer who received international recognition for his large-format monochromatic photographic series. Life Born in Bern in 1944, Burkhard was apprenticed to photographer ...

'', Museum Franz Gertsch – Burgdorf Schweiz (2007) * ''Elly Strik'', Laboratorio, Kunsthalle Lugano (2008) * Sammlung Deutsche Börse mit Anne-Marie Beckmann, CO Berlin (2009) * ''Scent of Desire, Balthasar Burkhard'', Museum im Bellpark,

Kriens Kriens is a city and a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. The municipality lies at the foot of the mountain Pilatus, and is a western suburb of Lucerne. History In the oldest documents of the Bened ...

(Lucern) (2009) * ''Martina Essig'', Laboratorio, Kunsthalle Lugano (2009) * ''Die Bilder tun was mit mir: Sammlung

Frieder Burda Frieder Burda (29 April 1936 – 14 July 2019, in Baden-Baden) was a German publisher, art collector and Honorary Citizen of Baden-Baden. Life Born on 29 April 1936 in Gengenbach, Burda was the second son of publisher Franz Burda and his wife ...

'', Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden (in cooperation with Patricia Kamp) (2010) * ''A rebours: Martin Eder, Elly Strik, Caro Suerkemper, Christoph Wachter'', , Paris (2010). * ''

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( ; ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and Aesthetics, art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism and sociology. With Heinrich Böll, , Caroline Tisdall, Rober ...

– Energieplan,'' Stiftung Schloss Moyland (2010) * ''Kathrin Borer'', Laboratorio, Kunsthalle Lugano (2010) * ''Annika van Vugt'', foundation of the 1822, Frankfurt (2015).

Quote

Awards

* 1993 –

Deutscher Kritikerpreis Deutscher Kritikerpreis was a cultural prize awarded annually by the Association of German Critics (Verband der Deutschen Kritiker e.V.) from 1951 to 2009. This award was given for outstanding contributions in the fields of architecture, the fi ...

für Bildende Kunst * 1999 – French

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

(Officer) * 2001 – , Munich * 2003 – Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt * 2006 – Laureate of the Dr.-Herbert-Zapp-Initiativ-Preises

Publications

* ''Bei näherer Betrachtung. Zeitgenössische Kunst verstehen und deuten.'' Westend Verlag, Frankfurt, 2009, . * French edition: ''En y regardant mieux.'' Les Presses du Reél, Dijon, 2010, . * ''Ein Briefwechsel'' (with ). Exhibition catalogue. Publisher: Galerie Bernd Slutzky, Frankfurt, 2001, * with

: ''Von Hodler zur Antiform, Geschichte der Kunsthalle Bern.'' Benteli Verlag, Bern 1970, new edition 2005. * ''Louis Moilliet. Das Gesamtwerk.'' DuMont Schauberg, Cologne, 1972. * with Christmut Präger: ''Museum für Moderne Kunst und Sammlung Ströher'', Schriften des Museums für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt 1992. * ''Bewegung im Kopf.'' Lindinger + Schmid, Regensburg 1993. * ''Rémy Zaugg – Gespräche mit Jean-Christophe Ammann.'' Cantz Verlag, Parkett Verlag, Stuttgart 1994. * with

Rolf Lauter Rolf Dieter Lauter (born December 3, 1952, in Mannheim) is a German art historian, curator, and art advisor. Early years Lauter already worked during high school at Johann-Sebastian-Bach Gymnasium (1963–1970) as Assistant Curator and from 197 ...

: ''Peter Fischli; David Weiss: Raum unter der Treppe'', Schriften des Museums für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt 1995. * ''Kulturfinanzierung.'' Lindinger + Schmid, Regensburg 1995. * ''Annäherung. Über die Notwendigkeit der Kunst.'' Lindinger + Schmid, Regensburg 1996. * ''Alighiero Boetti 1965-1994'', Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, 1996; Musée d'Art Moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq, 1996-1997; Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 20er Haus, 1997. * ''Das Glück zu sehen. Kunst beginnt dort, wo der Geschmack aufhört.'' Regensburg: Lindinger und Schmid, 1998, . * ''. Musik sehen, Bilder hören.'' Published by Verein ZwischenZeit, with a foreword by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Schwabe Verlag, Basel 2010, . * ''Bei näherer Betrachtung.'' Westend Verlag, Frankfurt 2007. * ''Bei näherer Betrachtung.'' Westend Verlag, 3rd extended edition, Frankfurt 2009. * ''En y regardant mieux.'' Les presses du réel, Saint-Etienne 2010. * ''Kunst? – Ja, Kunst – Die Sehnsucht der Bilder''. Westend Verlag, Frankfurt 2014. * ''Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo Generale.'' Electa Editore, Milan, Volume I, 2011; Volume II, 2012; Volume III/1, 2015. * ''Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo Generale.'' Tomo primo, 1961–1971, Miland 2009. * ''Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo Generale.'' Tomo secondo, 1972–1978, Miland 2012. * ''Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo Generale.'' Tomo terzo, parte I, 1979–1987, Miland 2015

References

External links

* * * * Ronja Merkel

Journal Frankfurt, 16. Dezember 2014 * Literatur von und über Jean-Christophe Amman

*
Ammann, Jean-Christophe
in ' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ammann, Jeanchristophe Swiss art historians Swiss curators Swiss art curators Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt Documenta 20th-century Swiss non-fiction writers 21st-century Swiss non-fiction writers Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1939 births 2015 deaths Writers from Berlin