Naomi Beckwith Appointed Curator of Documenta 16
155Dec. 18, 2024
Naomi Beckwith, who since 2021 has served as deputy director and chief curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, has been announced as the artistic director ofDocumenta16, set to take place in Kassel in 2027. Beckwith is the first Black woman to curate the German quinquennial since its founding in 1955; she is the second American-born curator, after Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in 2012, to lead it.
“It is the honor of a lifetime to be selected as artistic director for Documenta 16,” Beckwith said in a statement. “Documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world, as much as it belongs to Kassel, as well as an institution that is in perpetual dialogue with history as much as it is a barometer of art and culture in the immediate present. I am humbled by the breadth of this responsibility and equally excited to share my research and ideas with this storied and generous institution: one that affords space and time for focus, deep study, exploration, experimentation, and awakenings for artists, curators, and audiences alike.”
Before coming to the Guggenheim, Beckwith held curatorial roles at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She arrives to Documenta at a time of unease within the organization, sparked by accusations of antisemitism leveled at Indonesian collective ruangrupa, which curated the event’s fifteenth iteration, in 2022. The allegations set off a chain of events that included the departure of Documenta managing director Sabine Schormann and the resignation of the entire Documenta 16 selection committee. A new finding committee was appointed last summer.
Though she described the experience of being chosen to curate the quinquennial as “a shock, a surprise, but also a great joy,” Beckwith nonetheless appears well prepared to take on the role. “Every exhibition is a deep collaborative practice for me with artists,” she told the New York Times, “so there are no surprises.”