Marion Ackermann, currently artistic director of North Rhine-Westphalia’s art collections, will replace Hartwig Fischer as director of Dresden’s dazzling collections, overseeing 14 museums and art treasures ranging from Raphael’s Sistine Madonna to the Gerhard Richter archive.
Fischer took up his new post as director of the British Museum on 1 April. Ackermann begins her Dresden role on 1 November. A specialist in 20th-century and contemporary art, she has curated exhibitions on Wassily Kandinsky, Joseph Beuys, Tomas Saraceno, Rosemarie Trockel and Paula Modersohn-Becker, among others. She worked as a curator at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, taught at various universities and was the director of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart before taking up her current post in Düsseldorf in 2009.
“I am convinced she will know how to apply her wide-ranging experience as a museum director and a scholar to ensure that the Dresden State Art Collections remain an internationally recognised magnet for visitors,” says Eva-Maria Stange, the minister of culture for Saxony.
A part of her role, one of the most prestigious museum jobs in Germany, will be to oversee the continuing transformation of the war-damaged Renaissance royal palace into a major arts and museums complex.
