Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg director Ralf Beil ousted amid oil exhibition controversy

Ralf Beil has been removed as director of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, a museum funded by the Volkswagen Art Foundation and located in Volkswagen's headquarters city. Beil suspects his dismissal was triggered by the upcoming exhibition 'Oil—Beauty and Horror in the Petrol Age,' which critically examines petroleum's role in war and the plastic age. The museum's sole sponsor is the Volkswagen Art Foundation, and its board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch also chairs Volkswagen's supervisory board. Beil told artnet news he was 'swept out of my museum in one day' and asserted his contract grants him full artistic responsibility. Previous tensions include the 2016 exhibition 'Wolfsburg Unlimited,' which highlighted the city's Nazi ties, and a board member's suggestion to mount a show on Chinese artists—Volkswagen's largest market—which Beil refused. A museum spokesperson denied the oil show caused Beil's departure, noting an October conference titled 'True Oil. Paradigms and Tenets of Petro-Modernism' was held in preparation. The museum has appointed Andreas Beitin, director of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen since 2016, as Beil's successor starting April 2019. Interim director Otmar Böhmer, CEO of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and a Volkswagen Art Foundation board member, will serve until March 31, 2019.