Former Stedelijk Museum director Rudi Fuchs dies at 84

Rudi Fuchs, former director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, died on Sunday evening at the age of 84 in Amsterdam, where he lived. His family announced his death.

Fuchs was born in Eindhoven and studied art history at Leiden University. In 1975 he became director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, where he organised exhibitions that drew international attention with work by Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer and Jannis Kounellis.

In 1982 he became the first Dutchman to serve as artistic director of the Documenta in Kassel. From 1987 to 1992 he led the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, now the Kunstmuseum Den Haag.

In 1993 he succeeded Wim Beeren at the Stedelijk, where he developed an idiosyncratic way of staging exhibitions. In the series Coupletten he combined works from different periods and movements. He bought works by artists including Baselitz, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd and Damien Hirst.

His Amsterdam years were marked by financial problems and conflicts with the city over the museum's extension. He had the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza draw up a design. Fuchs stepped down at the end of 2002, and his farewell exhibition, Tot zo ver, followed a few months later.

He remained active as a writer, columnist, teacher and exhibition maker. In 2015 he selected more than 70 works for ArtZuid, and a year later he returned to the Stedelijk as guest curator with Opwinding, a personal selection from his acquisitions.