Le directeur est mort! Vive le directeur!
In the organizer's words:
On the 100th birthday of Roger Goepper
The anniversary presentation is dedicated to the former director Prof. Dr. Roger Goepper (1925-2011), whose 100th birthday will be celebrated in 2025. Goepper directed the Cologne Museum of East Asian Art (MOK) from 1966 to 1990 and was responsible for the MOK's major construction project at the Aachener Weiher site, among other things. Originally opened on Hansaring in 1913, the building was destroyed in the Second World War and redesigned and realized in 1967-77 in collaboration with the Japanese star architect Maekawa Kunio (1905-86).
Classically educated, Goepper already showed an affinity for art and technical talent at a young age and was particularly interested in stagecraft, drawing and pottery. He studied art history, sinology and Japanese studies as well as Sanskrit and Tibetan at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich under such greats as Max Loehr (1903-88), Herbert Franke (1914-2011) and Horst Hammitzsch (1909-91). His dissertation T'ang-tai: A Court Painter of the Ch'ing Period placed him in the tradition of early Western research into Chinese art. Indeed, Goepper shaped the Euro-American discourse on the then little-known history of East Asian art like hardly anyone else in the 20th century.
Goepper's lifelong examination of the genres, epochs and regions of art and handicrafts from China, Japan and Korea was characterized by a practical and object-oriented approach. The polymath's areas of activity were multifaceted: as an academic, curator, museum director, university lecturer, translator and intercultural ambassador. A short biography highlights the most important exhibition projects, new acquisitions, publications and awards that marked Goepper's professional career.
Naturally, the anniversary exhibition is fragmentary. Rather, the 25 exhibits are representative of the 25 years of Goepper's tenure at the MOK: each object covers one of the years - whether in the form of an exhibition poster or purchase, an installation view or a donation. The selection crystallizes the director's extensive collection interests - from pre-imperial oracle bones from China and Silla period ceramics from Korea to Tibetan art and Shingon Buddhism to modern and contemporary painting, calligraphy and lacquer art from Japan. Personal companions and institutional partnerships and the associated acquisition histories are also presented.
Last but not least, the show reflects the MOK as an exhibition venue in Cologne, whose interim period from 1945-77 wrote a city history with stations in the Overstolzenhaus, the Hahnentorburg and the Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle. A film also documents the years 1966-90 photographically. The collage of images is accompanied by an audio recording of Goepper's farewell speech on his departure from office in March 1990. The title of the anniversary presentation is therefore his bold final statement - "Le directeur est mort! Vive le directeur!"
This content has been machine translated.Price information:
KölnTag every first Thursday of the month (except public holidays): Free admission for all Cologne residents (with proof)
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