Okwui Enwezor, one of the most important curators on the international art scene and former Artistic Director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, died today at the age of 55 after a serious illness
Okwui Enwezor is dead. The former Artistic Director of the Haus der Kunst died today in Munich at the age of just 55. Enwezor was considered one of the most important curators on the international art scene. He directed the Venice Biennale as well as the documenta in Kassel – in 2002 as the first non-European ever to do so.
At the age of 20, the son of a building contractor left his native Nigeria for New York to study political science and literature. From 1989, Enwezor worked as a freelance curator. In 1993, he co-founded the Journal of Contemporary Art, the most important forum for African-American art. Enwezor became internationally known through his show “African Photographers, 1940 – Present”, which accompanied the major Africa exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1996. In 2011, he succeeded Chris Dercon at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Enwezor resigned from his post in June last year for health reasons.
He also saw the Munich exhibition venue as a research institute with an archive section. His show “Postwar”, which depicted the global development of art after the Second World War, caused an international sensation. In 2014, Okwui Enwezor was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by German President Joachim Gauck. The current exhibition on the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui is the great curator’s farewell gift, so to speak. The show runs until July at Haus der Kunst.