Pontus Hultén

Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén (21 June 1924 – 26 October 2006) was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century.

He studied Art History in Copenhagen and Stockholm with a dissertation on Vermeer and Spinoza. Director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (1957-1972), one of the most vibrant art institutions in the 1960s, Hultén curated a series of pioneering thematic as well as monographic exhibitions that promoted the museum as an elastic and open space. This concept of the open museum led him to curate interdisciplinary exhibitions, especially at the Centre Pompidou, where he was appointed Director (1973-1981). Hultén proned the integration of art, literature, film, science, theater and music within what he called a ‘museum without walls’ embracing concerts, talks, debates, screenings etc. His use of transparent structures for display created a more direct confrontation between people and works. Through large-scale survey exhibitions, Hultén wanted to make shows both complex and accessible for a wide audience. Artistic Director of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice (1984-1990) and Director of the Kunst-und Austellungshalle der BDR in Bonn (1990) and the Museum Jean Tinguely in Basel (1995), in 1985 Hultén also created along with Daniel Buren, Serge Fauchereau and Sarkis, an ambitous laboratory for interdisciplinary knowledge, the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques in Paris. (source)

Films

• with Hans Nordenström, En dag i staden [A Day in Town], 1958, 20 min.

Catalogues

• Le Mouvement, Paris: Galerie Denise René, 1955. A large sheet of yellow paper printed black, folded in four. Texts by Hultén ("Mouvement-Temps; ou les quatre dimensions de la plastique cinétique", "Petit memento des arts cinétiques"), Roger Bordier ("Cinéma", "L'Oeuvre transformable"); V. Vasarely ("Notes pour un manifeste", called "le Manifeste jaune" [The Yellow Manifesto]). Works by Agam, Bury, Calder, Duchamp, Jacobsen, Soto, Tinguely, Vasarely. Exh. curated by Denise René and Pontus Hultén; held 6-30 Apr 1955. [1] (French)

• Bewogen beweging [Moving Movement], ed. Pontus Hultén, Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1961, 25 pp. 233 works by 83 artists from 18 countries, incl. kinetic works by Tinguely (28 works), Calder, Takis, Schöffer, and Bury. Exh. curated by Pontus Hultén in collaboration with Billy Klüver and Daniel Spoerri; held at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 10 Mar-17 Apr 1961; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 17 May-3 Sep 1961; Louisiana, Humlebæk, 1961-62. [2] [3] (Dutch)
  • Rörelse i konsten [Movement in Art], ed. Pontus Hultén, intro. Poul Henningsen, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1961, 33+[21] pp. Special issue of Mobilia. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] (Swedish),(English),(French),(German)

• L'espace intérieur et extérieur, une exposition concernant un art universel: Malevich, Gabo, Klein et 35 autres artistes, ed. Pontus Hultén, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1965. (Swedish)

• Hon-en historia: hon, she, elle, sie, lei, zij, ed. Pontus Hultén, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1967. (Swedish)

• The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age, ed. Pontus Hultén, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1968, 218 pp. Exh. held at MoMA, New York, 25 Nov 1968-9 Feb 1969; Rice Museum, Rice University, Houston, 25 Mar-18 May 1969; San Francisco Museum of Art, 23 Jun-24 Aug 1969. (English)

• Andy Warhol, eds. Pontus Hultén, Kasper König, Olle Granath, and Andy Warhol, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1969.

• Jean Tinguely. Méta, ed. Pontus Hultén, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1972.

• Paris-Berlin, 1900-1933, eds. Pontus Hultén, Spied Erner, et al., Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1978. (French)

• Paris-Paris: créations en France 1937-1957, eds. Pontus Hultén and Jean-Claude Groshens, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1981. (French)

• Futurismo e futurismi, ed. Pontus Hultén, Milan: Bompiani, 1986, 638 pp. Exh. held at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 4 May-12 Oct 1986. (Italian)
  • Futurism and Futurisms, London: Thames & Hudson, 1986; New York: Abbeville Press, 1986.
  • Futurisme et futurismes, Paris: Chemin, 1986. (French)

• Une magie plus forte que la mort, ed. Pontus Hultén, Paris: Le chemin vert, 1987. (French)

• Jean Tinguely: A Magic Stronger Than Death, ed. Pontus Hultén, Milan: Bompiani, 1987, 384 pp; London: Thames and Hudson, 1987, 384 pp; New York: Abbeville Press, 1987, 384 pp.

• Paris-New York (1977), eds. Pontus Hultén, et al., Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1991. (French)

• Paris-Moscou: 1900-1930, eds. Pontus Hultén, Aleksandr Halturin, et al., Paris: Gallimard: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1991. (French)

• Territorium Artis, ed. Pontus Hultén, Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, and Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 1992, 394 pp. (German)

• Niki de Saint Phalle, ed. Pontus Hultén, Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, and Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 1992. (German)

• Quand les artistes font école: vingt-quatre journées de l'Institut des hautes études en arts plastiques, Vol. 1: 1988-1990; Vol. 2: 1991-1992, ed. Pontus Hultén, Marseille: Musées de Marseille, and Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2004. (French)

• Pontus Hultén, et al., Pontus Hulténs samling, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 2004, 448 pp. Exh. catalogue. Publisher. (Swedish)
  • The Pontus Hultén Collection, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 2004, 228 pp. Publisher.
  • Pontus Hultén: artisti da una collezione, ed. Stefano Cecchetto, Venice: Skira, 2006, 255 pp. (Italian)

Writings

• "Mouvement-Temps; ou les quatre dimensions de la plastique cinétique", in Le Mouvement, Paris: Galerie Denise René, 1955. (French)

• "La liberté substitutive ou le mouvement en art et la méta-mécanique de Tinguely", 1955; repr. in Tinguely, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, pp. 32-35. (French)
  • "Den ställföreträdande friheten, eller, Om rörelse i konsten och Tinguelys metamekanik", Kasark 2, Oct 1955. (Swedish)

• "Geschichte der Bewegungskunst im 20. Jahrhundert", Kunstnachrichten 1:6, Apr 1965. Trans. of article which first appeared in Rörelse i konsten (1961). (German)

• "Un lieu de rencontre pour le passé et la recherche", Le Monde, 16 May 1974. (French)

• "Toutes les muses", L’Arc 63, 1975. (French)

• Ecrits, interviews, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1975. (French)

• "Le cinquième étage de Beaubourg", in Georges Pompidou, homme de culture, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1995, pp 125-128. (French)

Interviews

• Yann Pavie, "Vers le musée du futur: entretien avec Pontus Hultén", Opus International 24–25, May 1971, p 61. (French)

• Otto Hahn, "Beaubourg: entretien avec Pontus Hultén", Art Press 8, Dec/Jan 1974. (French)

• "Pontus Hulten", The New Yorker, 29 Apr 1974. [9] (English)

• "Entretien avec Pontus Hultén", L’Arc 63, 1975, p 12. (French)

• Pierre Restany, "Per il nuovo Centre Pompidou: intervista di Pierre Restany a Pontus Hultén", Domus 558, May 1976. {it}}

• Joan Abello, "Interview with Pontus Hulten", Àrtics trimestral multilingüe de les arts i de les ics 6, Barcelona, Dec/Feb 1987, pp 34-38.

• Hans-Ulrich Obrist, "The Hang of It: Museum Director Pontus Hultén - Interview", Artforum, Apr 1997. (English)

• "På tal om kultur. Samtal med museimannen Pontus Hultén", Swedish Radio, 2001. Audio. (Swedish)

• Jean-Paul Ameline, Nathalie Ernoult, "Entretien avec Pontus Hulten", in Denise René l'intrépide: une galerie dans l'aventure de l'art abstrait 1944-1978, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 2001, pp 64-67. (French)

• "Interview with Pontus Hulten", Art Press 19, 2004.

Literature

• Alessandro Mendini, "Colloquio con Pontus Hulten", Domus 638, Apr 1983. [10] (Italian)

• Lutz Jahre (ed.), Das gedruckte Museum von Pontus Hulten. Kunstausstellungen und ihre Bücher, Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, and Bonn: Kunst- und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik, 1996, 183 pp. With texts by Lutz Jahre and Pontus Hulten, and contributions from Daniel Buren, Billy Klüver, Kasper König, Bernhard Luginbühl, Niki de Saint Phalle, Harald Szeemann, a.o. Publisher. Review: Stamm (Art Lib J). (German)

• Bernadette Dufrêne, La Création de Beaubourg, Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 2000, 272 pp. Review: Poulot (Culture & Musées). (French)

• Patrik Andersson, Euro-Pop: The Mechanical Bride Stripped Bare in Stockholm, Even, University of British Columbia, 2001. PhD dissertation.

• Patrik Andersson, "Against Stasis", Filip 5, Spring 2007. (English)

• Patrik Andersson, "Rörelse i konsten. The Art of Re-assemblage", Konsthistorisk tidskrift 78:4, 2009, pp 178–192. [11] [12] (English)

• Roberta Smith, "Pontus Hulten, 82, Champion of Contemporary Art, Dies", The New York Times, 30 October 2006. (English)

• "The Exhibitions of Pontus Hultén", ed. Florence Ostende, MACBA: Barcelona, 2009, [6] pp.

• Benoît Antille, "‘HON – en katedral’. Behind Pontus Hultén’s Theatre of Inclusiveness", Afterall 32, Jan 2013, pp 72-78. (English)

• Andres Pardey, "Curating Bewogen Beweging. The Exchange Between Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hultén, and Willem Sandberg", in The Artist as Curator. Collaborative Initiatives in the Internal ZERO Movement 1957–67, eds. Tiziana Caianiello and Mattijs Visser, Ghent: MER Paper Kunsthalle, 2015. (English)

• Andreas Gedin, Pontus Hultén, Hon & Moderna, Stockholm: Langenskiöld, 2016, 343 pp. (Swedish)

• Andreas Broeckmann, "Toward the Art and Aesthetics of the Machine", ch 2 in Broeckmann, Machine Art in the Twentieth Century, MIT Press, 2016, pp 47-86. [13] (English)

• Anna Tellgren (ed.), Pontus Hultén and Moderna Museet: The Formative Years, forew. Daniel Birnbaum, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, and London: Koenig Books, 2017, 192 pp. Texts by Patrik Andersson, Annika Gunnarsson, Ylva Hillström, Pontus Hultén, et al. TOC & Andersson's essay. Lundström's essay. Publisher. [14] (English)
  • Pontus Hultén och Moderna Museet: de formativa åren, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, and London: Koenig Books, 2017, 192 pp. Publisher. (Swedish)

• Kim West, The Exhibitionary Complex: Exhibition Apparatus and Media from Kulturhuset to the Centre Pompidou, 1963-1977, Huddinge: Södertörn University, 2017. (English)

• Kim West, "A Live Center of Information”: The Paris Connection, or, Of What Was Beaubourg the End?", May 18, 2017. (English)

• Dan Karlholm, "Rörelse i konsten och statisk energi", in Blick, rörelse, röst: Festskrift till Cecilia Sjöholm, eds. Katz Thor, et al., Huddinge: Södertörns högskola, 2021, pp 137-146. (Swedish)

See also

• The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age, exhibition curated by Hultén at MoMA, New York, 1968.

Links

• Wikipedia