We mourn Peter Weiermair

Peter Weiermair, the former and long-time director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein died on 25 November 2021 in Innsbruck after a long illness.

Peter Weiermair directed the Frankfurter Kunstverein from 1980 to 1998, during which time over 200 exhibitions were presented by him. Until the opening of the Schirn Kunsthalle, Portikus and the Museum für Moderne Kunst, the Frankfurter Kunstverein was the central cultural venue and meeting place for contemporary art in Frankfurt thanks to Peter Weiermair’s programme.

With exhibitions and first presentations in Germany of John Coplans, Robert Mapplethorpe, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lewis Baltz, Mario Cravo Neto, John Hilliard, Michel Francois, Peter Peryer, Ann Mandelbaum, Glenn Ligon, Tracey Moffatt and others, Peter Weiermair explored new artistic strategies and expanded the view and understanding of the medium of photography. In this way, he established artistic photography as an immutable component of contemporary art. In this context, Frankfurter Kunstverein played an important role in the international discourse. This led to the first international triennial for photography in 1996, which presented 85 artists from 22 countries under the title Prospect 96. Today, the list of participating artists reads like a Who’s Who of art photography.

Peter Weiermair was an exhibition maker with heart and soul. For him, artists always came first. He emphasised the autonomy of art and opened new ways of understanding through his unique mediation.

Peter Weiermair was a personality who has shaped the image of our city. He has permanently inscribed the spirit of the freedom of art in the purpose of the Frankfurter Kunstverein.

The board members, the many companions and colleagues as well as the current director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein express their deep and heartfelt condolences to Peter Weiermair’s family.