Kunstsammlung NRW
Schnappschuss mit Preisträger Neil MacGregor (links) in Weimar, Foto: Marion Ackermann
notes

“Confidence in the Open-Ended Artistic Process”

Marion Ackermann delivers the laudation at the 61st Award of the Goethe Medal to the Head of the British Museum

This year, in recognition of his extraordinary services in the realm of international cultural exchange, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum in London, received the Goethe Medal, an official badge of honor that has been awarded by the Federal Republic since 1975. In her laudation, Marion Ackermann expressed admiration for her prominent colleague as a personality whose attitude toward the world is “unconditionally contemporary,” but who at the same time looks toward the future from a historical perspective.

Excerpt from Marion Ackermann’s Laudation:

MacGregor’s attitude, she continued, testifies to his “great courage in utilizing the resources of the museum to actively shape a new, differentiated, fairer world view, one characterized by profound understanding.” On the basis of his “enlightenment intentions,” MacGregor strives to reach as many people as possible through his popular radio broadcasts, through the Internet, and through his books and exhibitions. The native of Scotland is particularly well-known for the book, A History of the World in 100 Objects, based on his radio broadcasts. In MacGregor, she perceives a trait that “seems self-evident to a museum director, yet is unfortunately encountered all too seldom: a confidence in the open-ended artistic process.”

According to Ackermann, he was one of the first to perceive the task of the museum as the stimulation of new art production. “During his time as Director of the National Gallery, he became legendary for opening up the museum to great artists, allowing them to remain there day and night.” In relation to the openness of this process, she points out, he exposed himself to the same risk of failure faced by artists every day. It is Germany's good fortune, said the Düsseldorf Museum Director in her laudation, to have MacGregor collaborating as a Founding Director on the conception of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.


Text for #32: Gerd Korinthenberg