In Memoriam: Rudi Fuchs (1942–2026)

The museum mourns the passing of Rudi Fuchs, one of the most influential figures in European contemporary art and a former director whose vision helped shape the Van Abbemuseum’s international standing. During his tenure from 1975 to 1987, Fuchs developed a distinctive approach to collecting and exhibition-making, bringing conceptual art, Minimalism, Arte Povera and expressive European painting into dialogue. Through exhibitions and acquisitions, he introduced artists including Lawrence Weiner, Michael Asher, stanley brouwn, Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, A. R. Penck and Jannis Kounellis to the museum’s programme and collection. 

Fuchs’s exhibitions were central to his vision of the museum as an arena in which contrasting ideas about art could encounter one another. His 1977 solo exhibition of Michael Asher exemplified his engagement with conceptual art, while thematic exhibitions including De Statua (1983), Uit het Noorden (From the North) (1984), Don Giovanni (1985), Het ijzeren venster (The Iron Window) (1985) and Regenboog (Rainbow) (1987) brought works together through shared attitudes and associations rather than stylistic categories or linear narratives of art history. By challenging the conventions through which art was classified and presented, Fuchs sought to open up new ways of seeing individual works and their relationships to one another. 

A special category within his oeuvre as an exhibition maker were his collection displays. A milestone in this regard was Ooghoogte (Eye level), (1986). Next to this there were his summer displays , which he described as “finger exercises”, and which were characterized by a remarkable freedom in the combinations he made. The 1983 summer display was restaged in 2009 as part of the exhibition programme Play Van Abbe: Part 1: The Game and the Players. Fuchs himself described the collection as an “opera”, and 2009 marked a rare occasion on which an exhibition was revived in a new staging. Much to the delight of the public. 

This approach also shaped his understanding of the collection. Rather than treating it as a chronological account of artistic progress, Fuchs favored the idea of a “collection museum”: a place for sustained looking, reflection and unexpected encounters between works. His thinking continues to resonate with Collection as Cosmos, in which the collection can be understood not simply as a record of art history, but as a space of relationships, connections and possibilities. 

Fuchs’s influence extended across Europe. As artistic director of documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982, he created a landmark exhibition that placed contemporary art in dialogue with historical traditions. He subsequently led the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and served as director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam from 1993 to 2003, where exhibitions featuring Imi Knoebel, Georg Baselitz, Karel Appel and Franz Ackermann marked his tenure. 

Through his discerning eye, intellectual conviction and lifelong commitment to artists, Fuchs left a lasting imprint on the Van Abbemuseum, on generations of exhibition-makers and on the international art world. 

Director Defne Ayas said: 

“Rudi Fuchs understood the museum as a place where art could speak for itself. His vision shaped the Van Abbemuseum and reached far beyond its walls, leaving a legacy across Europe. His influence can still be felt today, even in the way we present our collection in Collection as Cosmos. We remember him with gratitude and deep respect.” 

Further reading: Please look into the Van Abbemuseum’s archive on Fuchs’s exhibition and acquisition policy, including his understanding of the “collection museum” and his ambition to release artworks from their “stylistic security.”