The shareholders of Germany’s esteemed quinquennial exhibition Documenta have named Naomi Beckwith as artistic director of the next Documenta, number 16, which takes place in Kassel, Germany, in 2027.
The deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Beckwith has previously held curatorial posts at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. She is currently readying a major Rashid Johnson retrospective that will opening next year at the Guggenheim. Her past projects include overseeing the esteemed curator Okwui Enwezor’s acclaimed posthumous exhibition “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America.” (Enwezor curated Documenta 11, in 2002.)
Beckwith is the first Black woman to curate Documenta, which is comparable to the Venice Biennale’s main exhibition in terms of scale and prestige. Founded in the aftermath of World War II, the exhibition receives as much as €42.2 million ($44.4 million) in federal public funding.
“Naomi Beckwith’s appointment as artistic director is very good news for the next Documenta,” Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth said. “With her groundbreaking, internationally oriented curatorial work, she brings the best qualifications to make the next Documenta a success with global resonance. Under Naomi Beckwith’s leadership, Documenta has the opportunity to once again fully realize its potential as one of the world’s most important showcases of contemporary art.”
In a statement, Beckwith called the appointment “the honor of a lifetime.”
“Documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world,” she said, “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.”
Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Photo: Dukas / Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
In 2022, during Documenta 15, a major controversy arose over antisemitic caricatures in some exhibited works and other allegations of antisemitism. A work by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi was removed from the exhibition when antisemitic drawings were identified. The show’s artistic directorial team, the Indonesian collective Ruangrupa, faced criticism for its handling of the issue, and the incident prompted structural reforms and a reevaluation of oversight processes for future editions of Documenta. An academic advisory board to support and oversee the management and supervisory board was created, with the federal government holding two voting seats on it.
In November 2023, a previous selection committee set to pick the Documenta 16 artistic director collectively resigned following the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. Committee member Ranjit Hoskoté had faced criticism for signing a 2019 letter protesting a “Hindutva and Zionism” event, while Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger stepped down after Documenta refused to delay the exhibition, triggering a collective resignation.
Beckwith was selected from a shortlist of five by a new six-person finding committee made up of Yilmaz Dziewior, director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne; Sergio Edelsztein, a freelance curator and founder of the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv; N‘Goné Fall, an independent curator, academic and former general commissioner of the Africa2020 Season in France (appointed by Emmanuel Macron); Gridthiya Gaweewong, artistic director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok and co-director of the 2023 Thailand Biennale; Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and Yasmil Raymond, an independent curator and former director at Portikus and Rector of Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.
Roth, the culture minister, said that “Documenta is now on a very promising path,” after the “events of Documenta 15 were reviewed, structural deficits were clearly identified, and important decisions for structural reform have been made.” She added that these changes were “essential” prerequisites for further federal funding.
“I am also very pleased that Documenta is taking a clear stance against antisemitism and actively opposing all forms of group-based hostility towards people,” she said. “At the same time, as the organizer of a globally influential exhibition, Documenta stands firmly for artistic freedom within an open and inclusive society.”