Background
Lars Nittve was born in Stockholm in 1953.
Lars Nittve was born in Stockholm in 1953.
He studied at the Stockholm School of Economics, and obtained an Master of Arts In 2009, Nittve earned a Doctor of Philosophy, The Human Context, from the Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
He was the founding Director of Tate Modern in London. Former Director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The founding Director of Rooseum – Center for Contemporary Art – in Malmö, Sweden.
And Director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark.
Nittve is currently the Executive Director of M+, museum for visual culture of West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. at Stockholm University. He also pursued postgraduate studies at New York University.
In 1978 to 1985, Nittve served as lecturer in art history at the Stockholm University. During the same period he has been Senior Art Critic for the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, and contributed regularly to Artforum, New New York
From 1986 Nittve was appointed Chief Curator at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, where he curated a large number of high-profile exhibitions – both monographic and thematic, among them "Walter De Maria", "Kandinsky and Sweden", "Hilma af Klint" and the seminal "Implosion – a Postmodern Perspective".
From 1990 to 1995, he served as the founding Director of Rooseum – Center for Contemporary Art – in Malmö, Sweden, where he organized the whole exhibition program, including surveys of "Susan Rothenberg", "Allan McCollum", "Sherrie Levine" and "Andreas Gursky". In July 1995, Nittve became Director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark, where he also curated the groundbreaking exhibition "Sunshine & Noir – Art in Los Angeles 1960–1997". In the spring of 1998, he was named the first Director of Tate Modern, London, which opened in May 2000 to great acclaim.
In 2001, he took up his post as Director of Moderna Museet, the national Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.
He co-curated the thematic exhibition Fashination in 2004 about the dialogue between art and fashion in the last ten years. Other exhibitions include "Time and Place: Los Angeles 1957–1968" (2008).
"Anthony McCall" (2009) and most recently "Editor Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting" (2010). In the end of 2010 Nittve left his post as Director of the Moderna Museet after having served the maximum length of nine years anyone is permitted to hold the post.
Since January 2011, Nittve has been appointed the Executive Director of M+, the new innovative museum for visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.
He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Artist