Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, has been appointed artistic director of Documenta 16, to be held in Germany in 2027 Contemporary art exhibition in Kassel, held every five years.
The latest edition of Documenta has been embroiled in controversy. Four days after the festival opened in June 2022, Documenta 15 and its curators, the Indonesian group ruangrupa, were hit with lobbying charges for including a large banner by Taring Padi. The artwork, a commentary on Indonesia’s violent dictatorship, depicts hundreds of military figures, including a pig dressed as an Israeli national intelligence officer and another pig with fangs, a hat with a swastika Black hats, and side hair often worn by Orthodox Jews. .
An exhibition of works by Palestinian artists was vandalized just as the exhibition opened, prompting more than 100 of the exhibition’s affiliates to issue a collective statement condemning the incident as a racist attack.
Last year, after October 7, the Documenta government lambasted Rouen Rupa after two of its members collectively “liked” a pro-Palestinian post on Instagram. The Documenta response involves artists and other members of the cultural community who observe worsening surveillance and suppression of speech critical of Israel in Germany.
Beckwith was selected by Documenta 16’s second selection committee, which was formed this summer after the original selection committee resigned in 2023 following the resignation of Mumbai-based curator and writer Ranjit Hoskoté. Withdrew collectively in November of that year. Hoskote was also accused of anti-Semitism in 2019 after his signature on a petition likening Zionism to Hindu nationalism resurfaced.
Beckwith acknowledged the controversy that preceded the appointment, telling the media new york times Her curatorial approach will differ from that of previous curators. “Every exhibition is a deeply collaborative practice for me with the artist,” she told the paper. “So there are no surprises.”
Originally from Chicago, Beckwith holds a graduate degree from the Courtauld School of Art in London and became a Critical Studies Fellow through the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program before joining the Studio Museum in Harlem as associate director. After working closely with Thelma Golden for many years, Beckwith returned to Chicago in 2011 as associate director of the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art and was promoted to senior curator in 2018, co-curating Howardina ·Pindel’s first major survey at the museum. She joined the Guggenheim Museum in 2021.
