Thomas Kellein, a curator and art historian who was well-regarded for his leadership of museums in both the US and Europe, died in Berlin on Monday at 70. Bergos, the Swiss bank whose art consultancy Kellein led, said he died following a serious illness.
In Europe, Kellein was acclaimed for directing the Kunsthalle Basel and the Kunsthalle Bielefield in Switzerland and Germany, respectively.
At the former museum, which he led from 1988 to 1995, he organized shows for art stars such as Cindy Sherman, Mike Kelley, and Rachel Whiteread, continuing the institution’s reputation as a small but mighty force within Europe’s art scene. At the latter museum, which he directed from 1996 to 2010, he staged exhibitions devoted to work by Caspar David Friedrich, Vanessa Beecroft, Jeff Koons, and many more.
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For a brief period between 2010 and 2012, he directed the Chinati Foundation, the Donald Judd–founded art space in Marfa, Texas. He resigned from his post after 15 months; his reasons why were never made public.
Born in 1955 in Nuremberg, Germany, Kellein also worked as an art historian. In his writings, he addressed artists such as Walter De Maria, whom he attempted to interview without much success. The artist “explained to me at length—in a telephone call lasting around 40 minutes—that he was unfortunately not able to meet my request,” Kellein wrote in a journal run by the Tate museum network. “Inordinately upset by this, I decided to travel to New York. Again I tried in vain to arrange an interview, until I happened to run into him in the offices of the Dia Art Foundation in SoHo—his institution, so to speak, since it funded all his work at the time. His demeanour was extremely friendly, polite, even chatty, but very shy. His handshake was warm.”
Kellein found more success with the Minimalist sculptor John McCracken, whom he did interview and whose work he also addressed at length. Kellein also wrote on artists affiliated with the Fluxus movement, including George Maciunas, whose work he surveyed in a 2007 Kunsthalle Bielefield show.
In 2012, Kellein began to lead the Written Art Collection, a private collection based in Germany that is devoted to modern and contemporary artworks making prominent usage of text. Under his leadership, the collection began to focus on showy presentations that appeared in Venice during the Biennale. These presentations were given over to artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Jenny Holzer, Shirin Neshat, and Qiu Zhijie.
For the collection, Kellein also commissioned artists such as Siah Armajani, who produced a work that drew out comparisons between Farsi calligraphy and architecture. The collection’s holdings have been featured at institutions such as the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, which will stage an exhibition of its works in December.
“Thomas Kellein stood for an art that does not stop at a museum’s doors but opens itself to public space and discourse,” Bergos said in a statement. “His exhibitions were invitations to look and to think—playful exercises of thought filled with seriousness.