Robert Fleck
Curriculum Vitae
| 1957 | born in Vienna |
| lives in Düsseldorf, Paris and Lannion (Brittany) | |
| Studies at the universities of Vienna, Innsbruck and Paris (including with Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault). Doctorate in Modern History (1848 in Paris. Democracy, Social State and Modern Art) and Art History University of Innsbruck 1987 (under Helmut Reinalter and Anton Pelinka) | |
| since 1982 | Freelance art critic and exhibition maker |
| 1983–1990 | Author for the Viennese daily newspaper Die Presse |
| 1984–1991 | Research associate at the Research Center for Democratic Movements in Central Europe, Innsbruck |
| 1991–1993 | Austrian Federal Art Curator |
| 1991–1999 | France correspondent for art. das kunstmagazin, Hamburg |
| 1994–1999 | Collaborator at “museum in progress”, Vienna |
| 1998 | Curator of the 100th anniversary exhibition of the Vienna Secession and of “Manifesta 2”, Luxembourg |
| 1998–1999 | Director of the International Post-Graduate Program at the Art School of Nantes |
| 2000–2003 | Director of the Art School of Nantes |
| 2002–2003 | Commissioner for Art in Public Space for the City of Paris |
| 2004–2008 | Director of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg |
| 2007 | Commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale |
| 2009–2012 | Director of the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn |
| 2012–2025 | Professor for Art and the Public Sphere at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf |
Memberships, Awards
| 2001 | Dr. h.c. from the Art Academy of Cluj-Napoca, Romania |
| 2004–2012 | Board member of CIMAM, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art |
| 2010 | Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris |
| 2011–2014 | Member of the Supervisory Board of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais, Paris |
Teaching
| 1981 | University of Applied Arts, Vienna (guest lecturer: Gilles Deleuze’s lecture on painting) |
| 1987 | University of Klagenfurt, Institute of German Studies (guest lecturer Contemporary French Philosophy) |
| 1988 | University of Innsbruck, Institute of History (guest lecturer for Geo-History of France) |
| 1995–1996 | École des Beaux-Arts de Quimper (lecturer for contemporary art) |
| 1996–1997 | École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris (lecturer for contemporary art and its theory and curator of the exhibition “L’Art du plastique”) |
| 1996–1997 | École des Beaux-Arts de Quimper (lecturer for contemporary art) |
| 1995–1996 | École régionale des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing (lecturer for contemporary art and supervision of degree programs) |
| 1996 & 1997 | Member of examination boards at French art schools, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Paris |
| 1998–2000 | Direction of the International Post-Graduate Program at ERBAN – École Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Nantes |
| 1995–1996 | École des Beaux-Arts de Quimper (lecturer for contemporary art) |
| 2000–2003 | Director of ERBAN – École Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, in this capacity including supervision of degree programs and lecture/basic course in art history |
| 2004–2007 | Lecturer at Lüneburg University, Kunstraum of Lüneburg University, “Art and its Public Sphere” |
| 2012–2025 | Professor for Art and the Public Sphere at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Vice Rector from 2013 to 2023 |
Courses at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
| SS 2025 | S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: How to make exhibitions (or a final presentation) and how to successfully participate in exhibitions? V: Art after Democracy S: Gilles Deleuze: On Painting S: Art-making, restoration issues and preservation of works. A block seminar with students of conservation and restoration science from Cologne |
| WS 24/25 | S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: How to make exhibitions (or a final presentation) and how to successfully participate in exhibitions? V: Art-making in an epochal transition BS 1: Survival training – How do I succeed as an artist after graduation? Exhibitions, galleries, grants, sales, catalogue raisonné, life planning BS 2: Survival training – How do I succeed as an artist after graduation? Exhibitions, galleries, grants, sales, catalogue raisonné, life planning K: Individual and group discussions about artistic work and its development |
| SS 2024 | S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: How to make exhibitions (or a final presentation) and how to successfully participate in exhibitions? V: Visions and practices of the role of artists in the present and in modernity II. Simultaneously on Zoom and recorded on vimeo. S: Survival Training – Part 1 How do I survive in the performing arts? Strange New Worlds! (together with Prof. Lena Newton et al.) S: Survival Training – Part 2 How do I survive in the art world? Studio, exhibitions, gallery, collectors, taxes, image rights, the pitfalls of the art world S: Art-making, restoration issues and preservation of works. A block seminar with students of conservation and restoration science from Cologne and the artists’ archive of the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Pulheim (together with Dr. Barbara Oettl) K: Individual and group discussions about artistic work and its development |
|
WS 23/24 |
S: Class and student projects “250 Years of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf” and preparation of the festival day on November 13, 2023 with the organizing team “250 Years”, documentation of class and student projects and preparation of the book publication V: Visions and practices of the role of artists in the present and in modernity. – What do I actually want to achieve with my art? What path am I embarking on? This often unspoken, only intuited decision is central to the successful beginning of an artistic existence. How incredibly diverse the most important artists have made this over the past 100 years. S: The essential artistic movements and questions of the present (climate question, gender question, postcolonialism, the audiovisual image, the digital image, photography and the moving image, the role of painting, the potential of three-dimensional art, the tradition of conceptual art), reflected in art over the past hundred years S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: Survival After Disneyland – Steps towards independence as an artist K: Individual and group discussions about artistic work and its development |
| SS 2023 | Prof. Dr. Robert Fleck was on research leave in the summer semester 2023. Prof. Dr. Fleck is released for the conception and coordination of exhibition activities on the occasion of the 250th anniversary celebration of the Kunstakademie. |
|
WS 22/23 |
S: Preparation of projects by students and classes for the 250th anniversary of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 2023 V: Art and Ecology. An artistic question of the present (Part 1 of 3) V: Relations to Nature. Art, Architecture and Politics in the Climate Crisis (together with Jun.-Prof. Dr. Francesca Raimondi) S: Studio visits with contemporary artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: Exhibitions |
| SS 2022 | S: Preparation and conception of the Academy anniversary 2023 (involving as many artistic classes as possible) V: How Art Changes the World – II – the current global crisis (with live connections) S: Studio visits with selected artists in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: Making (and visiting) exhibitions |
| WS 21/22 | S: Studio visits in selected studios in Düsseldorf and various international cities V: How Art Changes the World. Another history of contemporary art and since 1800 S: Foundations of current and modern art S: How do I make an exhibition from A to Z, theory and practice |
| SS 2021 | S: Studio visits in Düsseldorf and simultaneously in studios in other cities and continents V: Utopias in contemporary art (and since 1800) S: Foundations of the art of our time and since 1900 S: How do I make an exhibition from A-Z? |
|
WS 20/21 |
S: Studio visits in Düsseldorf and simultaneously in studios in other cities and continents V: How do I survive these times II? Artistic perspectives in this present moment S: Foundations for understanding current art. A journey to the aesthetic sources of the seminar participants in the current situation S: How do I make an exhibition from A-Z? |
| SS 2020 | S: The studio in the (new) 21st century V: How to behave now as an artist or as an art student and how the art world is now permanently changing, what one must now reckon with as a new environment for artistic creation and impact S: Foundations for understanding the art of our time |
Courses at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
| SS 2025 | S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: How to make exhibitions (or a final presentation) and how to successfully participate in exhibitions? V: Art after Democracy S: Gilles Deleuze: On Painting S: Art-making, restoration issues and preservation of works. A block seminar with students of conservation and restoration science from Cologne |
| WS 24/25 | S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: How to make exhibitions (or a final presentation) and how to successfully participate in exhibitions? V: Art-making in an epochal transition BS 1: Survival training – How do I succeed as an artist after graduation? Exhibitions, galleries, grants, sales, catalogue raisonné, life planning BS 2: Survival training – How do I succeed as an artist after graduation? Exhibitions, galleries, grants, sales, catalogue raisonné, life planning K: Individual and group discussions about artistic work and its development |
| SS 2024 | S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: How to make exhibitions (or a final presentation) and how to successfully participate in exhibitions? V: Visions and practices of the role of artists in the present and in modernity II. Simultaneously on Zoom and recorded on vimeo. S: Survival Training – Part 1 How do I survive in the performing arts? Strange New Worlds! (together with Prof. Lena Newton et al.) S: Survival Training – Part 2 How do I survive in the art world? Studio, exhibitions, gallery, collectors, taxes, image rights, the pitfalls of the art world S: Art-making, restoration issues and preservation of works. A block seminar with students of conservation and restoration science from Cologne and the artists’ archive of the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Pulheim (together with Dr. Barbara Oettl) K: Individual and group discussions about artistic work and its development |
|
WS 23/24 |
S: Class and student projects “250 Years of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf” and preparation of the festival day on November 13, 2023 with the organizing team “250 Years”, documentation of class and student projects and preparation of the book publication V: Visions and practices of the role of artists in the present and in modernity. – What do I actually want to achieve with my art? What path am I embarking on? This often unspoken, only intuited decision is central to the successful beginning of an artistic existence. How incredibly diverse the most important artists have made this over the past 100 years. S: The essential artistic movements and questions of the present (climate question, gender question, postcolonialism, the audiovisual image, the digital image, photography and the moving image, the role of painting, the potential of three-dimensional art, the tradition of conceptual art), reflected in art over the past hundred years S: Studio visits with selected artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: Survival After Disneyland – Steps towards independence as an artist K: Individual and group discussions about artistic work and its development |
| SS 2023 | Prof. Dr. Robert Fleck was on research leave in the summer semester 2023. Prof. Dr. Fleck is released for the conception and coordination of exhibition activities on the occasion of the 250th anniversary celebration of the Kunstakademie. |
|
WS 22/23 |
S: Preparation of projects by students and classes for the 250th anniversary of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 2023 V: Art and Ecology. An artistic question of the present (Part 1 of 3) V: Relations to Nature. Art, Architecture and Politics in the Climate Crisis (together with Jun.-Prof. Dr. Francesca Raimondi) S: Studio visits with contemporary artists of all generations in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: Exhibitions |
| SS 2022 | S: Preparation and conception of the Academy anniversary 2023 (involving as many artistic classes as possible) V: How Art Changes the World – II – the current global crisis (with live connections) S: Studio visits with selected artists in Düsseldorf and surrounding areas S: Making (and visiting) exhibitions |
| WS 21/22 | S: Studio visits in selected studios in Düsseldorf and various international cities V: How Art Changes the World. Another history of contemporary art and since 1800 S: Foundations of current and modern art S: How do I make an exhibition from A to Z, theory and practice |
| SS 2021 | S: Studio visits in Düsseldorf and simultaneously in studios in other cities and continents V: Utopias in contemporary art (and since 1800) S: Foundations of the art of our time and since 1900 S: How do I make an exhibition from A-Z? |
|
WS 20/21 |
S: Studio visits in Düsseldorf and simultaneously in studios in other cities and continents V: How do I survive these times II? Artistic perspectives in this present moment S: Foundations for understanding current art. A journey to the aesthetic sources of the seminar participants in the current situation S: How do I make an exhibition from A-Z? |
| SS 2020 | S: The studio in the (new) 21st century V: How to behave now as an artist or as an art student and how the art world is now permanently changing, what one must now reckon with as a new environment for artistic creation and impact S: Foundations for understanding the art of our time |