Olivier Berggruen (born 14 September 1963) is a German-American art historian and curator,[1][2] described by the Wall Street Journal as playing "a pivotal role in the art world."[3]
Berggruen has curated a number of international exhibitions, such as a retrospective of Yves Klein at the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and one of Beatrice Caracciolo at the
French Academy in Rome.[13] He is a contributor to the Huffington Post, for which he writes articles on art, literature, and philosophy.[14] Additionally, he has written extensively on
Picasso,
Yves Klein, and
Henri Matisse, among others, for organizations including the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, publications such as Artforum and The Print Quarterly, and for
Gagosian Gallery, for which he contributed with
University of Cambridge professor Mary Jacobus.[15][16] His first book, The Writing of Art, is a series of essays, which explores aesthetics through the lens of twentieth-century art, tracing movements and trends such as the ontological discontinuity of modernism in Picasso's ballets. He is currently working on two book projects, including a history of collecting and a study of
Wittgenstein's aesthetics, and will be lecturing at the Courtauld Institute in the 2017–18 academic year.[14] In 2016, the Italian government commissioned Berggruen to curate an exhibition to celebrate the centennial of Picasso's Italian journey. “Picasso: From Cubism to Classicism, 1915 to 1925,” was held at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale from September 22, 2017, through January 21st, 2018.[17][18] In 2019, he co-curated an exhibition on Picasso and antiquity at the
Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, which won a 2019 Global Fine Art Award.[19][20]
"The Fragmented Self" in Dieter Buchart ed., Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now's the Time,
Prestel, 2015.
"The Theater as Metaphor" in Olivier Berggruen and
Max Hollein eds., Picasso and the Theater, Hantje Cantz, 2007.
Editor (with Max Holbein), Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors: Masterpieces from the Late Years, Prestel, 2006.
“Ed Ruscha: Ribbon of Words” in Ed Ruscha: The Drawn Word, Edited with Essay, Windsor Press (2004), pp. 1 – 7
“The Prints of Jean-Michel Basquiat”, Print Quarterly, XXVI (2009): pp. 28 – 38
“The Future of Painting” in Portraits Lost in Space: George Condo, Pace Wildenstein, New York (1999), pp. 30 – 34
“The Realm of Pure Sensations” in Playing With Form: Neoconcrete Art From Brazil, Edited with Essay, Dickinson New York (2011), pp. 19 – 27
“Picasso & Bacon: Painting the Other Self” in Francis Bacon and the Tradition of Art, Edited by Wilfried Seipel, Barbara Steffen, Christoph Vitali, Skira Editore S.p.A. (2003), pp. 71 – 83
“The Summons to Living Things to Return Home” in Cy Twombly: Bacchus, Gagosian Gallery, 2005, pp. 5 –15
“The Landscape of the Mind” in Agnes Martin, Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG Zurich (2008)
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