Robert Fleck

Prof. Dr. Robert Fleck, born in Vienna in 1957, has lived in France since 1980. Following his studies at the Universities of Vienna, Innsbruck, and Paris (including under Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault; his doctoral thesis was supervised by Prof. Helmut Reinalter and Anton Pelinka), he worked as a freelance art critic and exhibition organiser during the 1980s and 1990s.

His career led him from the position of the first Austrian Federal Art Curator (1991–1993) to the Directorate of the Art Academy of Nantes (2000–2003), followed by the Director of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2004–2008), and the General Director (Intendant) of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn (2009–2012).

From 2012 to 2025, Fleck was a Professor of Art and Public Sphere at the Düsseldorf Art Academy (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf), and from 2013 to 2023, he served as its Prorector and Deputy Rector.

Fleck curated exhibitions such as the 100th-anniversary exhibition of the Vienna Secession (“The Century of Artistic Freedom,” 1998), “Manifesta 2” in Luxembourg (with Maria Lind and Barbara Vanderlinden, 1998), the Visual Arts section of the first Turin Biennale (2000), the first BBL-Biennale in Brussels (with Lynne Cooke, Chris Dercon, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2002), and in 2007, he served as Commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Artist: Herbert Brandl).

He is the author of 40 books on art, politics, and history, including: “Avantgarde in Wien. Die Geschichte der Galerie nächst St. Stephan, 1954-1982. Kunst und Kunstbetrieb in Österreich” (1982), “Gleichheit auf den Barrikaden. Die Revolutionen von 1848 in Europa. Versuch über die Demokratie” (1991), “Die Biennale von Venedig. Eine Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts” (2009, 2011), “Die Ablösung vom 20. Jahrhundert. Malerei der Gegenwart” (2013), “Pierre Soulages” (with Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2017), “Yves Klein et l’Allemagne” (2018), “Kunst im 21. Jahrhundert” (2021), “Kunst und Ökologie” (2023), and “Mack – en face” (2025).