Tag Archives: Documenta 11

ON ENWEZOR

We are just beginning to realize what the loss of Okwui Enwezor means for the world of art. Okwui’s curatorial vision was informed by his articulate opposition against hegemonic powers, social injustice, and the continued exclusion of people of color. He was certainly one of the most inspiring and rigorous forces in the field of curating, who seamlessly linked the exclusive contemporary art industry with world politics. Equally important, his absence is deeply felt by many of us on a personal level, by all of those whom he worked with over the past three decades, by those inspired by his charisma, his ambition, and the way he used his position of power to radically shift the status quo wherever he worked. — Ute Meta Bauer

As a preview to the upcoming New Museum exhibition GRIEF AND GRIEVANCE: ART AND MOURNING IN AMERICA—the final project conceived by Okwui Enwezor—join Bauer, Franklin Sirmans, Terry Smith, Octavio Zaya, and New Museum Artistic Director Massimiliano Gioni for a discussion on Enwezor’s curatorial vision and life’s work.

See link below to register for the online conversation.

MEETING WORLDS—ON OKWUI ENWEZOR’S WORK

New Museum

Thursday, January 21.

5 pm on the West Coast; 7 pm East Coast.

From top: Okwui Enwezor, artistic director of Documenta 11, in Kassel, Germany, 2002, photograph by Werner Maschmann, image courtesy and © Documenta Archiv, Kassel; The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994, edited by Enwezor, cover image courtesy and © Prestel; Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, edited by Enwezor, Katy Siegel, and Ulrich Wilmes, cover image courtesy and © Prestel; Enwezor (left), Ute Meta Bauer, Octavio Zaya, and Mark Nash in Kassel, 2002, photograph by Maschmann, courtesy and © Documenta Archiv, Kassel; El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, edited by Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, cover image courtesy and © Haus der Kunst, Munich; Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, cover image courtesy and © New Museum and Phaidon.

OKWUI ENWEZOR

“We knew it was coming but the finality of his passing makes it even more devastating. Okwui was this enormously prophetic figure, wise beyond his years, whose insights—vision, if you will—literally shaped the universe many of us now inhabit. He was like an enormous tree in the glare, whose shadow provided refuge, hospitality, generosity, and love for so many.” — John Akomfrah

Okwui Enwezor—the great historian, curator, writer, editor, and former artistic director of Haus der Kunst—has died in Munich following four years of cancer treatment.

Enwezor, who was 55 at the time of his death, is celebrated for his paradigm-shifting directorship of Documenta 11 in 2002, and the 56th Venice BiennaleAll the World’s Futures—in 2015.

A writer and editor in demand, Enwezor’s contributions will live on in the work of the artists he championed.

From top: Contemporary African Art Since 1980 (2009), by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, image courtesy Damiani; John Akomfrah: Signs of Empire (2018), contributing text by Enwezor, image courtesy the New Museum; Candice Breitz: The Scripted Life (2010), contributing text by Enwezor, image courtesy Kunsthaus Bregenz; Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection (2017), contributing text by Enwezor, image courtesy Steidl and the Walther Collection; Gary Simmons: Paradise (2012), conversation with Enwezor, image courtesy Damiani; Kerry James Marshall: Painting and Other Stuff (2014), contributing text by Enwezor, image courtesy Ludion; Lyle Ashton Harris: Excessive Exposure (2010), text by Enwezor, image courtesy Gregory R. Miller & Co.; Home Lands–Land Marks: Contemporary Art from South Africa (2009), contributing text by Enwezor, image courtesy Haunch of Venison.