Beatrix Ruf

Beatrix Ruf (born 1960, Singen, Germany^[1]) is a German art curator. Ruf is from November 2014 the director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.^[2]

Formerly she was director of the Kunsthalle Zurich. She is associate editor for JRP-Ringier, and 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.

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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

From 1998 until 2001, Ruf was the director of Kunsthaus Glarus. In 1999, she joined the board of the Schweizerische Graphische Gesellschaft (SGG).^[5]

Ruf replaced Bernhard Bürgi in 2001 as director at Kunsthalle Zurich.^[6] 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.^[7]

Ruf has served as a juror in commissions and has curated numerous exhibitions, written essays and published catalogues on contemporary art.^[5] In 2006 she curated the Tate Triennial for Tate Britain, London.^[5] She co-curated the 2008 Yokohama Triennale.^[1]

As director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, her first purchase was the work Zwei Lampen by Isa Genzken (1948). The first exhibition in 2015 was by Tino Sehgal.

References