Anda Rottenberg (born 23 April 1944) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

art historian, art curator, art critic, and writer recognized for her contributions to recognizing Poland's art world. She was former director of the

Zachęta National Gallery of Art The Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Polish: ''Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki'') is a contemporary art museum in the center of Warsaw, Poland. The Gallery's chief purpose is to present and support Polish contemporary art and artists. With numero ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and member of the

International Association of Art Critics The International Association of Art Critics (''Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art'', ''AICA'') was founded in 1950 to revitalize critical discourse, which suffered under Fascism during World War II. Affiliated with UNESCO AICA was ad ...

(AICA), International "Manifesta" Foundation and the International "Germinations" Foundation. She launched Egit, one of the first foundations for art in Poland, served as Director of the Department of Art at the Ministry of Culture and Art, was curator and commissioner of the Polish Pavilion in the Venice Biennial from 1973-2001, and was instrumental in establishing the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

Biography

Anda Rottenberg was born in 1944. Her mother was

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

from Petersburg, and her father was a

Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

from the town of

Nowy Sącz Nowy Sącz (; hu, Újszandec; yi, Tzanz, צאַנז; sk, Nový Sonč; german: Neu-Sandez) is a city in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County as a separate administrative unit. It has ...

. All of his family was murdered during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. Rottenberg grew up in

Legnica Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda (Kaczawa), Czarna Woda ...

. In 1963, she moved to

, where she earned a degree in the

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. She wrote the following books: ''Sztuka w Polsce 1945-2005'' (en. "Art in Poland 1945-2005"), ''Draught - Texts on Polish Art of the ‘80s'' (2009), ''Here You Are'' (2009), and an autobiography ''Proszę bardzo!'' (en. "You're welcome!"). The main reason for writing the latter book was her anger at the police who were unable to find the body of her son (he was a drug addict and died in unknown circumstances). In her autobiography, Rottenberg also wrote about her mother, who survived the siege of

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was sentenced to prison for stealing a few spoons of food: she met there her future husband, Rottenberg's father.Anda Rottenberg, ''Proszę bardzo'', Warszawa: W.A.B. 2009, p. 346. Anda Rottenberg received the Officer's Cross Order of Polonia Restituta (2001), the Commander's Cross Order of Polonia Restituta (2011),

Aleksander Gieysztor Prize Aleksander Gieysztor (17 July 1916 – 9 February 1999) was a Polish medievalist historian. Life Aleksander Gieysztor was born to a Polish family in Moscow, Russia, where his father worked as a railwayman. In 1921, the family relocated to Po ...

(2013), and

Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

(2014).

Career

Anda Rottenberg is a Warsaw-based curator and writer. She established Egit in 1986, one of the earliest art foundations in Poland. She was Director of the Department of Art within the Ministry of Culture and Art in 1991-1992, Director of Mazowiecka Gallery in Warsaw from 1991-1993, and Director of the George Soros Center for Contemporary Art 1992-1993. She was Director of the National Gallery of Art, Zachęta, in Warsaw from 1993-2001 and orchestrated exhibitions featuring Polish artists on an international stage, with presentations in Venice and São Paulo Biennials. Rottenberg was instrumental in establishing the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rottenberg, Anna 1944 births Living people Polish art historians 20th-century Polish Jews Polish women writers University of Warsaw alumni Women art historians Polish women curators Polish people of Jewish descent Art curators