A brush with… Karen Archey, head of curatorial at Düsseldorf’s K20 and K21 museums

Karen Archey, the head of curatorial department at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen © K20 K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen; Düsseldorf; photo: Andreas Endermann
If you could live with just one work of art, what would it be?
I’ve been obsessed with Alice Neel for a number of years. When I started at K20/K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had recently acquired a significant work by Neel (The
Great Society, 1965). The artwork I would acquire for the museum doesn’t always align with what I would want to live with, but in this case it’s true: Neel’s works are in equal turns expressive, arresting, and deeply politically charged.
Which cultural experience changed the way you see the world?
The Grand Tour of 2007 [when the Venice Biennale, the Art Basel art fair, Documenta in Kassel and Skulptur Projekte Münster, Germany, coincided in the same summer]. I was in my last year of university and I travelled from Venice to Basel to Kassel to Münster and looked at every piece of art on that tour. Took notes on literally everything. It became painfully apparent to me how art functions differently in an art fair (Basel), in comparison to a biennial (Venice) and which audiences and activities they anticipate—and where I fit and do not fit in.
Which writer or poet do you return to?
I read poetry during periods of life in which I am too exhausted to maintain focus to read novels for pleasure. In the last week or so I’ve re-read The Hermit by Laura Solomon, Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Nate Klug’s Rude Woods (a modern translation of Virgil’s Eclogues), and Kate Colby’s I Mean. I have read some of these a dozen times.
What music or other audio are you listening to?
I am currently listening to Sheriff Labrador through earmuffs and ear plugs because I’m trying to work and be a parent at the same time.
What is art for?
I know the answer; I’m just keeping it for myself.
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