Art news daily: 22 August | Apollo Magazine

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Udo Kittelmann to step down as Berlin museums director | Udo Kittelmann has announced his intention to step down as director of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s (Berlin State Museums’) Nationalgalerie when his contract expires in October next year. In his role Kittelman oversees five of Berlin’s most important museums, including the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Hamburger Bahnhof. During his 12-year tenure Kittelmann has overseen the €101m renovation of the Neue Nationalgalerie, due to be completed next year, while also curating major exhibitions of Gerhard Richter, Andreas Gursky, Hilma af Klint and Emil Nolde. His position will be filled on an interim basis by Joachim Jäger until a new appointment is made.

Di Rosa Center urged to change deaccession plans | A group of 125 art world professionals have signed an open letter urging the di Rosa Collection Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, California to change its plans to sell off the majority of its 1,600-strong collection of postwar Bay Area artworks to fund an endowment. The organisation announced its plans to gradually deaccession all but a few hundred works in July, stating that its $3m annual budget is insufficient to manage the present collection. The signatories of the letter, who include Peter Saul, Mark di Suvero, Deborah Butterfield, and other artists whose work is represented in the collection, suggest that the centre should find another home for the collection in its entirety, rather than let it be dispersed.

Simon Preston appointed senior director at Pace | The gallerist Simon Preston, who closed his eponymous space in New York in 2018, has been appointed as a senior director at Pace Gallery. The appointment is part of a broader process of expansion at the gallery, which is due to open a new flagship, eight-storey space in Manhattan next month.