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| Bice Curiger | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bice Curiger |
| Birth date | 1948 |
| Birth place | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Curator, art historian, editor, artist |
| Known for | Directorship of Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, editorial leadership at Parkett, artistic practice |
Bice Curiger is a Swiss curator, art historian, editor, and artist known for her influential role in contemporary art curation, publishing, and painting. She has served in leadership positions at institutions such as the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles and the editorial board of Parkett, curated major exhibitions at venues including the Venice Biennale, and maintained an active practice as a painter and writer. Curiger's work frequently engages with painting, museum discourse, and the intersections of historical and contemporary art.
Curiger was born in Zurich in 1948 and studied art history and archaeology in Switzerland and abroad. She completed advanced studies that connected Swiss cultural institutions such as the Kunsthaus Zürich with research traditions from Paris, Rome, and other European centers. Influenced by Swiss modernism and European museum networks including the Centre Pompidou and the Guggenheim Museum, her academic formation combined practical museum training with scholarship on Renaissance and Baroque legacies.
Curiger's curatorial career spans roles in Swiss and international institutions, including work with the Fondation Beyeler and collaboration with curators from the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Kunstmuseum Basel. She curated thematic and monographic exhibitions that brought together artists associated with movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Conceptual Art, often negotiating loans from collections like the National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2009 she directed the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, aligning the institution's program with projects involving the Van Gogh Museum, the Musée d'Orsay, and regional partners including the Centre National des Arts Plastiques. Curiger has also participated in international juries and biennale teams for the Venice Biennale, the Documenta advisory panels, and the Skulptur Projekte Münster.
As an artist, Curiger works primarily in painting, drawing, and curatorial-installation hybrids that reference historical continuities from Giotto and Caravaggio to Édouard Manet and Mark Rothko. Her paintings engage with pictorial traditions, iconography, and the materiality of paint, dialoguing with contemporary practitioners such as Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, and Anselm Kiefer. Curiger's aesthetic combines figuration and abstraction and frequently invokes religious iconography, landscape motifs, and layered collage strategies reminiscent of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.
Curiger is widely known for her long tenure as editor-in-chief of Parkett, a Swiss-based contemporary art magazine that connected writers and artists including Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Bruce Nauman, and Marina Abramović. Through essays, catalogues, and editorial projects she has contributed to scholarship on figures such as Pablo Picasso, Lucian Freud, Yves Klein, and Josef Beuys, while engaging with institutions including the Serralves Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts. Her writing blends critical theory, formal analysis, and curatorial reflection, addressing debates surrounding postmodernism, feminist art history, and the museum's role in contemporary culture.
Curiger curated and co-curated a range of high-profile exhibitions, collaborating with museums such as the Kunsthalle Zürich, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Hayward Gallery. Notable projects include curatorial contributions to the Venice Biennale where thematic pavilions and collateral events placed her in dialogue with curators from the Serpentine Galleries and the Palais de Tokyo. Her directorship at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles produced exhibitions linking Vincent van Gogh's legacy with contemporary artists, alongside partnerships with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the National Portrait Gallery, and regional French cultural networks.
Curiger has received honors from Swiss cultural bodies and international arts organizations, with recognitions comparable to awards given by institutions like the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, the European Cultural Foundation, and major museum prize committees. She has been invited as a fellow and lecturer at institutions such as Columbia University, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the University of Oxford, and has participated in panels with representatives from the Getty Research Institute and the Smithsonian Institution.
Curiger's legacy includes her influence on contemporary curation, art publishing, and painting, shaping dialogues among artists, critics, and institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Kunsthaus Zürich. Her editorial stewardship at Parkett and her curatorial projects have promoted transnational exchanges across galleries, biennales, and museums including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Tate Modern, and the Centre Pompidou. Curiger continues to exhibit and publish, and her work is represented in private and public collections, contributing to ongoing debates in contemporary art history and museum practice.
Category:Swiss curators Category:Swiss art historians Category:Swiss painters