Dr. Michael Diers
Dr. Michael Diers, Professor of History of Art (retired)
Contact:
- Phone: +49 40 42 89 89-0
- Mail: michael.diers@hfbk-hamburg.de
Consultation Hours on appointment only
Michael Diers has been professor of art history and history of the image at the HFBK Hamburg from 2004 to 2017. He studied art history, German studies and philosophy in Münster and Hamburg, where he gained his doctorate in 1990 with a paper on the art and culture historian Aby Warburg (Warburg aus Briefen). From 1990 to 1992, he was a research associate in the “Politische Ikonographie” study project (directed by Martin Warnke) at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen, and from 1992 to 1994, he was a research associate in the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar of the Universität Hamburg. In 1994, he habilitated at the Universität Hamburg. From 1994 to 1999, he was a university lecturer at the Kunsthistorisches Seminar of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, and from 1999 to 2004, he was a lecturer at the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar of the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, where he also acted as managing director from 2000 to 2002. He was appointed as an extracurricular professor in 2004. He also works independently as an author, critic and exhibition-maker.
His teaching and research follow the principles embodied in a neon sculpture by Maurizio Nannucci “All art has been contemporary”. His research has focused on the art of the Renaissance and modern art from 1800 to the present day. He specialises in photography, film and new media, political iconography, art and media theory and scientific history.
From 2001 to 2003, Michael Diers was a board member of the Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker, and from 1991 to 2001, he edited the paperback book serieskunststück (monographs and artworks), published by Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. Between 2005 and 2007, he edited the seriesFundus Bücher, published by Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg. He is co editor of the study edition of the collected works of Aby Warburg (Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1999ff.) and a member of the AICA international critics association and of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). He is also a scientific advisor (Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, Ruhr Museum Essen, etc) and an evaluator (DFG, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, American Academy).
In early 2011, the Goethe Institut New York selected him as a member of the jury for theMINI / Goethe Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 program, which nominates young curators to oversee the gallery belonging to the New York Goethe Institut in Manhattan (Lower East Side, address: Ludlow 38) for the year.
Since the winter semester of 2004/05, Michael Diers has held a number of events (lectures, seminars and symposia) entitled spiel/raum:kunst at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.