Catherine David

Catherine David
Catherine David – Painting 1988 by Christian W. Staudinger
Born	1954 Paris, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	Université de la Sorbonne, École du Louvre
Occupation	curator, art historian, museum director

Catherine David (born 1954) is a French art historian, curator and museum director. David was the first woman and the first non-German speaker to curate documenta X in Kassel, Germany (June 21 – September 28, 1997). David is currently deputy director of the National Museum of Modern Art (Musée National d'Art Moderne) at the Centre Georges Pompidou. She was born and lives in Paris.

David studied Spanish and Portuguese literature, linguistics and art history at the Université de la Sorbonne and the École du Louvre in Paris. From 1981 to 1990 she was a curator at the National Museum of Modern Art (Musée National d’Art Moderne), Centre Pompidou, Paris. From 1990 to 1994 she moved to the National Gallery of the Jeu de Paume (Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume), also in Paris, where she organized several solo and group exhibitions including: "Reinhard Mucha, Passages de l’image"; "Stan Douglas: Monodramas and Television Spots"; "Marcel Broodthaers"; "Hélio Oiticica"; "Eva Hesse"; "Jeff Wall and Chantal Ackerman: D’Est", among others.

In 1994 David was appointed artistic director of documenta X in Kassel, staged in the summer of 1997. She made headlines in the international art world with her original approach to documenta, where she brought her cross-sector discipline to the exhibition, inviting writers, sociologists and architects, as well as artists, to speak over the 100-day exhibition. For the first time a website was conceived as a part of the exhibition, curate by the artist and Swiss curator Simon Lamunière. In 1999 she went on to curate the film and video program of the XXIV Biennial of São Paulo. The following year she organized "The State of Things" for the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. In 2002 she took over as Director of the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam where she remained until 2004. Over several years David was chief curator of the Musées de France (French Museum Board). She was also artistic director of the 2009 Lyon Biennale.