My Commedia dell'Arte

Art historian, curator and founder of Parkett, Jacqueline Burckhardt's contributions to the art world make her a true Renaissance woman

The life of Swiss-born art historian Jacqueline Burckhardt (born 1947) is steeped in the arts: as a former restorer, as coeditor of the art journal Parkett, as curator of site-specific art on the Novartis Campus in Basel, as a lecturer and as director of the summer academy at the Zentrum Paul Klee. This volume honors Burckhardt's tireless dedication to the arts, featuring an in-depth dialogue with the curator and art historian Juri Steiner, which addresses a plethora of topics ranging from the dual historical nature of artworks to Herbert Lachmayer's concept of "taste intelligence." Selected texts penned over the past 40 years elaborate on issues raised in the conversation and emblematize Burckhardt's distinctive writing voice. The "Intermezzo"--with contributions by Laurie Anderson, Kurt W. Forster, Katharina Fritsch, Herbert Lachmayer, Pipilotti Rist and Catherine Schelbert, plus a letter from Ernst Gombrich--eloquently testify to her relationship with artists and authors.