Werner Spies

Werner Spies (born 1 April 1937 in Tübingen) is a German art historian, journalist and organizer of exhibitions. From 1997 to 2000, he was also a director of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.[1] According to Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina, Vienna, Spies is "one of the most influential art historians of the 20th century."[2]

Life and work

In his younger years, Spies worked as a writer of feuilletons for some German newspapers. He then studied art history, philosophy and French literature at the universities of Vienna, Tübingen and Paris.[3] He completed his Ph.D. thesis and Habilitationsschrift, both in the history of arts, at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

Since 1960, Spies has lived in Paris. From 1975 to 2002, he was a professor of the history of arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.[4] He also writes articles for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[5]

As an expert on, and friend of,[6][7] Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso, he wrote many books, and also organized major exhibitions, on these artists.[8] He compiled the first catalogue raisonné of Picasso’s sculptures in 1971 and organized the first ever Max Ernst retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1975.[9] On his suggestion, photographer Andreas Gursky donated PCF (2003), his photograph of the headquarters of the French Communist Party, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, to the Centre Pompidou in 2010.[10]

In his later years, Spies was fooled by art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi's near-identical forgeries of five works by Max Ernst. The art historian, who first met Ernst in 1966 and is the leading expert on this artist, mistakenly issued certificates of authenticity for these fake copies of the surrealist’s work.[11] On 24 May 2013, Spies was convicted by the high court in Nanterre and ordered to pay €652,883 to the collector who purchased in 2004 an alleged Max Ernst painting, entitled Tremblement de Terre, that he had wrongly authenticated.[12] This decision was however overturned by the Court of Appeal of Versailles which ruled that Spies had "expresse[d] an opinion outside of a determined transaction" and could not therefore "be charged with a responsibility equivalent to that of an expert consulted in the context of a sale”. The Court further retained that it “cannot be required of the author of a catalogue raisonné to subject each work in a catalogue published under his responsibility to the execution of a scientific expert assessment, which requires the removal of fragments of the work and represents a significant cost”.[13]

Publications

Awards

In 1979 Spies received the Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preis of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung;[14] in 1995 the Wilhelm Hausenstein-Ehrung of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste;[15] in 2001 the Goethe-Medaille,;[16] and in 2003 the Elsie-Kühn-Leitz-Preis of the Deutsch-französische Gesellschaften.[17] He further received the Premio internazionale arte et letterature Sergio Polillo, Bergamo;[18] the Preis der Art Cologne (2003);[19] the Croix de Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; the Croix de Commandeur de l'Ordre national du Mérite; the Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern; the Verdienstorden des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen and the Verdienstmedaille des Landes Baden-Württemberg.

References

  1. "Ehrendoktorwürde für Werner Spies" [Honorary doctorate for Werner Spies]. Tübinger Universitätsnachrichten (in German). University of Tübingen. 14 April 2005. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  2. Julia Michalska, "Werner Spies rehabilitated with Max Ernst show in Vienna". The Art Newspaper, 28 January 2013.
  3. artnews.org: ALTE HASEN: WERNER SPIES IN CONVERSATION WITH THOMAS W. GAEHTGENS
  4. Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Klasse der Künste: Werner Spies
  5. Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Klasse der Künste: Werner Spies
  6. Werner Spies: "Zwischen Oberammergau und Guillotine", BR, 2 March 2012.
  7. artnews.org: ALTE HASEN: WERNER SPIES IN CONVERSATION WITH THOMAS W. GAEHTGENS
  8. art-perfect: PICASSO – MALEN GEGEN DIE ZEIT, Albertina Wien
  9. Julia Michalska, "Werner Spies rehabilitated with Max Ernst show in Vienna". The Art Newspaper, 28 January 2013.
  10. Anna Sansom (2 December 2010), Artist tops up Pompidou’s collection The Art Newspaper.
  11. "Als ich mich fand in einem dunklen Walde" (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
  12. Art Media Agency: Ernst Expert Werner Spies fined
  13. Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung: Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preis
  14. Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste: Wilhelm-Hausenstein-Ehrung
  15. "Werner Spies erhält die Goethe-Medaille", Berliner Zeitung, 17 March 2001.
  16. Vereinigung Deutsch-Französischer Gesellschaften für Europa e.V.: Elsie-Kühn-Leitz-Preis
  17. art-perfect: PICASSO – MALEN GEGEN DIE ZEIT, Albertina Wien
  18. "Art-Cologne-Preis 2010: Ehre den Grässlins", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 February 2010.

Further reading

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