Jean-Hubert Martin
Jean-Hubert Martin (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ.ny.bɛːʁ maʁ.tɛ̃]) born on June 3, 1944 in Strasbourg, France, is a leading art historian, institution director, and curator of international exhibitions. Through his professional career, he contributed to expand what is considered as contemporary art as well as create a dialogue between different cultures and ethnic groups.
Son of Paul Martin, curator of the Historical Museum in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin region in Eastern France), and of Paulette Rieffel, Jean-Hubert Martin studied at Lycée Fustel de Coulanges in the same village before getting his bachelor's degree in Art History at La Sorbonne in Paris. He received his diploma in 1968 before becoming a curator in the French National Museum system in 1969.
After a short period of working at the Louvre, he started his career in Paris at the Musée National d'Art Moderne (French National Museum of Modern Art) located at the Palais de Tokyo and directed by Jean Leymarie. There, he organized significant exhibitions of Man Ray, Alberto Burri and Richard Lindner. He played a key role in Francis Picabia’s revolutionary exhibition in 1976 at the Grand Palais, which showed for the first time his entire work, including his figurative period. Having demonstrated a great interest in the art of the current time, he was named curator of the Contemporary Art department by Pontus Hulten then in charge of the creation of the Centre Pompidou. In this position, he organized exhibitions of the works of Kazimir Malevich, Jean Le Gac and Pierre Molinier as well as « Paris-Berlin » and « Filliou et Pfeufer: La Fondation PoïPoï présente un hommage aux Dogons et aux Rimbauds » (Filliou and Pfeufer: the PoïPoï Foundation pays tribute to the Dogon and the Rimbaud) in 1978, « Paris-Moscou » (Paris-Moscow) in 1979 and Man Ray in 1982.
That same year, he was named curator of the French pavilion at the Sydney Biennale and became director of the Berne Kunsthalle, directed by Harald Szeeman 20 years before. It is the start of his career as director of European institutions: after working at the Berne Kunsthalle (1982–1985), he became director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris (1987–1990), artistic director of the Château d’Oiron (1991–1994), director of the National Museum of African and Oceanic Art (1994–1999), general director of the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf (1999–2006, the museum opened in 2001), and artistic director of the PAC (Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea), in Milan.
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