Beatrice von Bismarck

Biography

Prof. Dr. Beatrice von Bismarck is Professor of Art History and Visual Studies at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts (HGB). She lives in Berlin and Leipzig. Approaches to cultural production that combine theory and practice are at the center of Beatrice von Bismarck's working methods. Her current areas of research include the aesthetic, social, and political potentials of curatorial action, the consequences of globalization for the cultural field, and the functions of the postmodern artist's image. From 1989 to 1993, she worked at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut and the Städtische Galerie in Frankfurt/Main as curator of the 20th century department, where she supervised, for example, solo presentations of Richard Long, Bruce Nauman (1991), Dan Flavin, and Jürgen Partenheimer (1993). She then worked at the University of Lüneburg from 1993 to 1999, where she founded the "Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg" together with Diethelm Stoller and Ulf Wuggenig and realized exhibition projects such as "Services" (Andrea Fraser/Helmut Draxler, 1994), "Public/Private" (Thomas Locher/Peter Zimmermann, 1996)or "Interarchive" (1999-2002) with Hans-Peter Feldmann. In 2000 von Bismarck followed the call to the HGB Leipzig as professor and program director of the university's own gallery. From 2003 to 2011 von Bismarck was prorector of the HGB. She is the initiator of the master's program "Cultures of the Curatorial" at the HGB, which was established in 2009. In 2010 she was a Guest Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.