Swedish Lars Nittve (66) was the the director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art outside Copenhagen (1995–98), founding Director of Tate Modern in London (1998–2001), director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2001–10), and until recently Director of the M+ museum of contemporary art in Hong Kong, which he joined in 2011.
The M+ Museum in Hong Kong was scheduled to open in 2017, but the latest construction delay was the last straw and from now on, he wants to spend more time at his home in Sweden and only remain a consultant to the project.
Lars Nittve goes to Hong Kong
Lars Nittve was born in Stockholm in 1953. He studied at the Stockholm School of Economics, and obtained an M.A. at Stockholm University. He also pursued postgraduate studies at New York University. In 2009, Nittve earned a PhD, HC, from the Umeå University in Sweden.
In 2010 when Nittve agreed to come to Hong Kong to lead the M+ project, the authority was overjoyed. M+ is aiming at reinventing the definition of a museum and has been described as the most ambitious museum project since the Centre Pompidou opened in Paris nearly 40 years ago.
Related: Sweden’s Largest Art Museum Opens After 5 Years of Renovation
In an interview in 2015, Nittve pointed out that he was not really leaving. He said he would be showing up for work as a consultant for one week each month in Tsim Sha Tsui. “M+ is a team effort but it is also very much my brainchild. I’ve been here five-and-a-half years. I want it to have a happy ending,” he concluded.
The building is now scheduled to be finished March 2020 and the M+ museum will open nine to twelve months later.
Swedish Legend in the Art World
Nevertheless, Nittve has had a prolific career as a curator and lecturer, and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Art. In 2013 he was ranked at number 73 in Art Review Magazine’s annual Power. He is also the author of several publications on art, as well as articles in journals and catalogues in Sweden and abroad
Swedish Legend in the Art World, written by Tor Kjolberg