Klaus Ottmann

Photo: Herb Lotz

GOOGLE lecture on YVES KLEIN
(Mountainview, Calif., August 18, 2008)

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Klaus Ottmann received a M.A. in philosophy from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany in 1980 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Division of Media and Communications at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland in 2002.

Currently the Robert Lehman Curator for The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, N.Y., Ottmann has curated more than forty exhibitions including LIFE, LOVE, AND DEATH: THE WORKS OF JAMES LEE BYARS at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg, France (2004) and WOLFGANG LAIB: A RETROSPECTIVE, which originated at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. and traveled to five additional venues including the Dallas Museum of Art and the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2000 – 2002).

His most recent curatorial projects include OPEN EV+A 2007: A SENSE OF PLACE, an international survey of contemporary art held city-wide in Limerick, Ireland (March – May 2007); STILL POINTS OF THE TURNING WORLD: SITE SANTA FE'S SIXTH INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL (July 2006 – January 2007); and BODIES OF DESIRE: WORKS ON PAPER BY WILLEM DE KOONING AND CHLOE PIENE, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia (January - February 2007). He is currently working on monographic exhibitions of works by RACKSTRAW DOWNES and JENNIFER BARTLETT for The Parrish Art Museum, scheduled to open in 2010 and 2011.

Ottmann teaches art history at the School of Visual Arts, New York.

From 1988 to 1995 Ottmann was Curator of Exhibitions at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, where he implemented an original exhibitions program, emphasizing European and American art since 1960. He presented important historical exhibitions as well as one-person shows of established and emerging artists such as Franz Erhard Walther, Astrid Klein, Mary Kelly, Kiki Smith, Jessica Stockholder, and Tom Friedman. He initiated and taught Wesleyan's first course on contemporary theory and exhibition practice, now an established part of the curriculum. He was also a pioneer in initiating online art projects with artists such as Renée Green and Vik Muniz.

From 1996 to 1999 he held the position of Curator of Exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts in New York, where he conceived original exhibitions and solicited and evaluated proposals from leading curators and art historians to develop and implement traveling exhibitions to museums worldwide.

Ottmann has written extensively on art for numerous museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museu Serralves, Porto; IVAM, Valencia; and the Kunstmuseum Bonn. He has also contributed to leading periodicals, including FLASH ART, ARTS, DOMUS, ART ON PAPER, ART PRESS, SCULPTURE, and ARTNEWS.

His books include THOUGHT THROUGH MY EYES: WRITINGS ON ART, 1977–2005 (Putnam, Conn.: Spring Publications, 2006, THE GENIUS DECISION AND THE POSTMODERN CONDITION (Putnam, Conn.: Spring Publications, 2004), and THE ESSENTIAL MARK ROTHKO (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003). In 2006 Ottmann translated Gershom Scholem's book ALCHEMY AND KABBALAH into the English language (Putnam, Conn.: Spring Publications, 2006). In 2007 he translated the complete writings of Yves Klein (OVERCOMING THE PROBLEMATICS OF ART: THE WRITINGS OF YVES KLEIN (Putnam, Conn.: Spring Publications, 2007). He is currently writing a book on the philosophy of the French artist Yves Klein and is translating an early study by the German idealist philosopher F.W.J. Schelling, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION (1804), for the first time into the English language.

Since 1991 Ottmann has been the publisher and editor of the JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART, which features conversations with and projects by a diverse international group of emerging and established artists including Marina Abramovic, Arakawa, Judith Barry, Barbara Bloom, Larry Clark, Christo, Dan Graham, Gilbert & George, Leon Golub, Antony Gormley, Imi Knoebel, Jeff Koons, Jonathan Lasker, Wolfgang Laib, Rita McBride, Mariko Mori, Takashi Murakami, Cady Noland, Adrian Piper, Mimmo Rotella, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Bill Viola, and Sue Williams. The JOURNAL ceased paper publication in 1996 and its content is now available online.

Ottmann is also the editor-in-chief of SPRING PUBLICATIONS, INC., a small publishing house based in Putnam, Connecticut that specializes in books on psychology, philosophy, religion, mythology, and art.