Video pioneer and art educator: Wulf Herzogenrath has died at the age of 82

With Wulf Herzogenrath, the international art world is losing one of its defining personalities,” the letter says. The art historian and curator has been committed to the “communication, acceptance and social relevance” of art for more than five decades, according to the family.

Wulf Herzogenrath is considered a leading expert on the Bauhaus and video art. At the age of 28, he was appointed the youngest director of a German art association to date, the Cologne Art Association, which he headed for almost 17 years. At Documenta 6 in 1977 he was responsible for the video art department, and ten years later he was a member of the management team at Documenta 8. In 1989 he moved to Berlin, where he became the main custodian at Hamburger Bahnhof. In 1994 he resigned to take over the management of the Bremer Kunsthalle.

In 2011 he said goodbye to Bremen, but continued to work in all sorts of offices and committees, in the Association of Art Associations, later as an honorary professor in Bremen, as jury chairman of the Goslar Kaiserring and in the Berlin Academy of the Arts, of which he headed the Fine Arts Section until 2021

Wulf Herzogenrath’s work was characterized by intellectual curiosity, the family writes, and by the ability to inspire people about art and its social significance.