Wieland Schmied (5 February 1929 – 22 April 2014) was an Austrian
art historian and critic, curator, literary scholar and writer. He was professor of
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...
since 1986 and its
rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
from 1988 until 1993. He was president of the
Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste
Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste in München (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) is an association of renowned personalities in Munich, Bavaria. It was founded by the Free State of Bavaria in 1948, continuing a tradition established in 1808 by ...
from 1995 to 2004.
He was born in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, Germany, in 1929,
the eldest son of the Austrian philosopher and his second wife. He grew up in Frankfurt am Main and Friedberg, before moving to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
with his parents in 1939. Following the ''
Matura
or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, C ...
'' of his secondary schooling in
Mödling
Mödling () is the capital of the Austrian district of the same name located approximately 14 km south of Vienna.
Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone (Industrieviertel). The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises in the Vienna Woods, ...
, he studied law at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
. He became an Austrian citizen in 1949.
As director of the
Kestnergesellschaft
Kestner Gesellschaft (Kestner Society) is an art institution in Hanover, Germany, founded in 1916 to promote the arts. Its founders included the painter Wilhelm von Debschitz (1871–1948). The association blossomed under the management of and , ...
, Hannover, Schmied organized a total of 99 exhibitions, for whose exhibition catalogues he wrote numerous forewords and other contributions. In Berlin he curated many important international exhibitions on 20th century art. In 1977, he was responsible for the
drawings department at the
documenta 6
documenta 6 was the sixth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 24 June and 2 October 1977 in Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hess ...
in
Kassel,
and continued to head the department "
Neue Sachlichkeit
The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the '' Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, w ...
und
Surrealismus" at the 15th European Art Exhibition in Berlin. For the
Goethe Institute
The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...
, with
Eberhard Kolb
Professor Eberhard Kolb (born 8 August 1933, Stuttgart) is a German historian, best known for his research of the German history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Biography
Eberhard Kolb studied at the universities of Tübingen and Bo ...
and , he curated an exhibition on visual art of the early
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
.
Schmied died on 22 April 2014 in
Vorchdorf
Vorchdorf is a market town in the district of Gmunden in Upper Austria, Austria, as well as the name of the municipal area ("Gemeinde") that the town and others occupy. As of the 2005 census, the town of Vorchdorf had a population of 7,287 inhabit ...
, Upper Austria.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmied, Wieland
1929 births
Austrian art historians
2014 deaths