The Trustees of the Tate Gallery today announced that they have appointed Lars Nittve as the Director of the Tate Gallery of Modern Art at Bankside which will open in Spring 2000.
Lars Nittve (44) has been the Director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Copenhagen since 1995. He was born in Stockholm in 1953 and completed his post-graduate studies at the Department of Art History, University of Stockholm and at the International Center for Advanced Studies in Art, New York University. He was Senior Curator of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm from 1986 to 1989 and the Founding Director of Rooseum, Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö from 1990 to 1995. He has curated and organised many outstanding exhibitions including Walter de Maria (1989) for Moderna Museet, Susan Rothenberg (1990), Trans/Mission (1991), Charles Ray (1994), Andy Warhol Abstracts (1994) and Andreas Gursky Photographs (1995) for Rooseum and Sunshine & Noir - Art in LA 1960-1997 (1997) at the Louisiana Museum. He was a member of the Committee of Experts for the 1997 Venice Biennale and a juror for the 1997 Turner Prize. He has written extensively on modern art and is the author of many books and catalogues. He was senior art critic for the Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm 1981-85 and the Scandinavian correspondent for Artforum magazine 1983-86.
Lars Nittve said:
With the benefit of superb architecture in an outstanding location, and thanks to the Tate’s extraordinary Collection, the Tate Gallery of Modern Art has the potential to become one of the foremost museums of modern art in the world. Alongside the grand vision, I see this as a museum deeply rooted in its local community, and it is that fusion of global thinking with local life and action that, for me, makes Bankside so exciting. Great Britain really does seem to be bursting with creative energy at the moment, and this too is a great inspiration - I am thrilled to be coming to work here at this time.
Nicholas Serota said:
Lars Nittve is an outstanding curator and the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen is amongst the most influential museums of modern art in Europe. We are very fortunate that its director has agreed to come to London, and I look forward greatly to working with him towards realising such an important project, at a defining moment in the Tate’s history.
The new Director of the Tate Gallery of Modern Art will lead the development of the new gallery to take its place alongside the other galleries in the Tate family, whilst at the same time forging a commanding position on the national and international art scene. Construction of the new gallery began at Bankside in October last year, the latest stage in the six year long development programme which will transform the abandoned power station into London’s landmark millennium project.
Lars Nittve will take up his post this Autumn.