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At the assembly of AICA members in Cologne on 27 October, Cologne art critic Walter Vitt (68), head of the art critics’ association for the past 15 years, was unanimously re-elected for three more years as president of the German section of AICA.
Also re-elected were secretary general Marie Luise Syring (60) from Düsseldorf and vice-president Klaus Honnef (65) from Bonn. Potsdam critic Andreas Hüneke (60) retired after nine years as a committee member, and Berlin critic Peter Herbstreuth (45) took his place as additional vice-president. Herbstreuth, born in 1959 in Dortmund, was accepted into the German AICA in 2000. He writes for the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”, the “Kunst-Bulletin” in Zürich, and “Flash-Art” in Milan, among other publications. The German chapter selected former presidents Karl Ruhrberg (Oberstdorf) and Horst Richter (Cologne) as honorary AICA members. Ruhrberg will be 80 years old this year, Richter is 78.
Walter Vitt recognized Hüneke’s actions within the committee as part of the long-standing effort to achieve a unified German AICA. This process is now concluded within the critics’ association, but certainly not yet in society as a whole, Vitt said. The former and current AICA president reiterated that he, too, would have liked to have put his committee work in other, younger, hands this year. However, despite months of effort he was unable to find anyone within the association who wanted to vie for his position. The change of personnel in this office is deemed necessary not only because he gradually finds himself too old for the work, but also because bringing a new generation into the committee is necessary with regards to content. The ideas of younger colleagues must be brought in, in order to revitalize AICA’s work. Vitt announced that, were a suitable successor to appear, he would not hesitate to resign before his 3 year term is over.
Walter Vitt has belonged to the German section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) since 1978. From 1986 to 1989 he was secretary of the German AICA. Since 1989, he has served as president of the German AICA, which developed into an AICA association representing all of Germany after unification. In 1993, Vitt founded the “Schriften zur Kunstkritik” (“Writings on Art Criticism”). To date, 14 volumes have been published in this “library of art criticism.” Vitt received prominence in part due to his books on Dada artist Johannes Theodor Baargeld and pioneering constructivist painter Walter Dexel.
Cologne, 28 October 2004
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