Beatrix Ruf

Beatrix Ruf (born 1960, Singen, Germany[1]) is a German art curator who held the position of director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam between November 2014 and October 2017.[2][3] Formerly she was director of the Kunsthalle Zurich. She is associate editor for JRP-Ringier, works with the LUMA Foundation and is the artistic director of the Ringier Collection. In 2012, she was listed in the top ten of the most influential people in the art world by ArtReview.

Beatrix Ruf
Beatrix Ruf (2015)
Born1960 (age 59–60)
Singen, Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationMuseum director

Biography and education

Ruf is the daughter of a land surveyor, later mayor of Singen, a small town near the Swiss border. She studied at a gymnasium and studied psychology, ethnology, art, and cultural sciences at the University of Zurich. After this, she went to the Conservatory of Vienna to study dancing.[4] She became a choreographer and art critic and gave lessons in improvisation at the conservatory.

Work

Ruf started her career in art as curator of the Kunstmuseum Thurgau between 1994 and 1998.[5] She has been the artistic director of the Ringier Collection since 1995. In 1998 she was named as a member of the Art commission of Swiss Re.[6]

From 1998 until 2001, Ruf was the director of Kunsthaus Glarus. In 1999, she joined the board of the Schweizerische Graphische Gesellschaft (SGG).[6]

Ruf replaced Bernhard Bürgi in 2001 as director at Kunsthalle Zurich.[7] In 2012, she completed the acquisition, remodelling and extension of the Kunsthalle Zürich building at the Löwenbräu building in Zürich. That year, she also served on the jury for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the Artissima Illy Present Future Prize.[8]

Ruf has served as a juror in commissions and has curated numerous exhibitions, written essays and published catalogues on contemporary art.[6] In 2006 she curated the Tate Triennial for Tate Britain, London.[6] She co-curated the 2008 Yokohama Triennale.[1]

In 2014 Ruf was appointed director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Her first purchase was the work Zwei Lampen by Isa Genzken (1948). The first exhibition in 2015 was by Tino Sehgal.

On October 17, 2017, Ruf resigned as director of the Stedelijk after reports in the Dutch news media detailed how, since 2014, she had been earning nearly a half million euros per year as a private art consultant, above and beyond the salary she received from the Stedelijk, and that she had also failed to report those activities and earnings.[9] Her art consultancy activities consisted, in part, of having the Stedelijk officially borrow her clients' artworks, whereby the Stedelijk's prestigious imprimatur would then cause those artworks to increase in value.[10] Several weeks beforehand, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad also reported that Ruf had brokered a deal whereby the Stedelijk was to receive a gift of 600 artworks from the German art collector and dealer Thomas Borgmann; in fact, the actual gift consisted of 200 artworks, and was contingent upon the Stedeljk agreeing to purchase seven other artworks from Borgmann in exchange for €1.5 million.[9] This transaction was initially absent from the Stedelijk's annual report, until the NRC Handelblad's publication of the details resulted in the museum later amending its annual report.[11]

An independent investigation, commissioned by the city of Amsterdam, fully cleared Ruf in June 2018 from all allegations.[12][13][14]

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gollark: It's not smart just because monkeys do it! Those apioids.
gollark: It is very idiom.
gollark: You should add my quick sort implementation to it.
gollark: > C

References
  1. "Artistic Director / Curators". Yokohama Triennale 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  2. "Beatrix Ruf New Director Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam". 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  3. Beatrix Ruf verlässt das Stedelijk Museum. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 17. Oktober 2017. (german)
  4. Koelewijn, Jannetje (April 2015). "Interview with Ruf". NRC Handelsblad Magazine Lux #23.
  5. Beatrix Ruf Budapest Contemporary.
  6. Beatrix Ruf Prix Pictet.
  7. Allen, Jennifer. "Beatrix Ruf Arrives in Zurich". Past Digests. Artforum. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  8. "7. Beatrix Ruf". The Power 100. Art Review. Archived from the original on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  9. "Stedelijk onderzoekt nevenactiviteiten directeur Beatrix Ruf". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  10. "Kunstschandaal". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  11. "Gratis kunst die stiekem toch 1,5 miljoen kost". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  12. New York Times: Inquiry Clears Museum Director Who Quit in Conflict-of-Interest Storm.
  13. Art Forum: New Report clears Former Stedelijk Director Beatrix Ruf of Wrongdoing.
  14. Süddeutsche: Sponsoren und Mäzene bieten eine Chance.
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