CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Willem van Haecht (1593-1637), Apelles paints Campaspe, ca. 1630
Mauritshuis, The Hague
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Axel Rüger new director of the Van Gogh Museum

Axel Rüger has been appointed director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam as of 1 April 2006.
Axel Rüger on the CODART ACHT study trip to Sweden, September 2005

Axel Rüger in Drottningholm,
on the CODART ACHT study trip to Sweden, September 2005

CODART congratulates our member and member of the Program Committee on this major appointment.

Press release of the Van Gogh Museum, 11 January 2006

The Supervisory Board of the Van Gogh Museum foundation has appointed Axel Rüger to be the new director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and Mesdag Museum in The Hague as of 1 April 2006. Axel Rüger (born in 1968 in Dortmund, Germany) held internships in various museums in Atlanta, Detroit and Washington before being appointed in 1999 as Curator of Dutch Paintings at the National Gallery in London. He studied art history at the universities of Berlin (Freie Universität, 1989-1993) and Cambridge, United Kingdom (1993-1994) and started to research for his Ph.D. at Queen’s University in Kingston (Ontario, Canada). He plans to complete his thesis at Radboud University in Nijmegen.

Among the exhibitions he recently curated for the National Gallery are: Vermeer and the Delft School (2001) and Aelbert Cuyp (2002). His publications include: Vermeer and painting in Delft (2001), Collected opinions: essays on Netherlandish art in honour of Alfred Bader, London (with Volker Manuth, eds., 2004) and Art in the making: Rembrandt (with David Bomford and Ashok Roy) which is due to appear later this year.

In 1998 and 1999 Axel Rüger lived in Amsterdam, where he undertook research for his dissertation. During this he period learned to speak Dutch and established a network of Dutch contacts.

The Supervisory Board comprises: Mr Ewald Kist (former executive chairman of ING Group), Andrée van Es, Katharine Lee-Reid (director of Cleveland Museum of Art), Prof. Dr. Paul Schnabel (director of Social and Cultural Planning Bureau) and Hans van der Ven (CEO Samas Group NV).

Mr Ewald Kist, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Van Gogh Museum commented: "Axel Rüger is a highly accomplished, energetic curator with an international reputation and he is clearly ready to take on this new challenge in Amsterdam. His expertise in Dutch art and his experience in the United Kingdom and North America will serve him well here and the Board is delighted to have found such an outstanding successor for John Leighton."

The current director John Leighton will take up the post of Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland in March 2006.