Klaus Ottmann is an independent curator, writer, translator, and Chief Curator Emeritus of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. He is also the publisher and editor of Spring Publications, a small press specializing in books on Jungian psychology, mythology, artist writings, and religion. In 2016, he was conferred the insignia of Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters by the French ministry of culture and communication.

Among his many curated exhibitions are Jennifer Bartlett: In and Out of the Garden (2024); James Brooks: A Painting Is a Real Thing (2023); George Condo: The Way I Think (2017); Karel Appel: A Gesture of Color (2016); Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet (2013); Jennifer Bartlett: History of the Universe. Works 1970–2011 (2014), Fairfield Porter: Raw – The Creative Process of an American Master (2010); Still Points of the Turning World, SITE Santa Fe Sixth International Biennial, Santa Fe (2006); Life, Love, and Death: The Works of James Lee Byars (2004 – 2005); and Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective (2000–2002). He also initiated and oversaw the installation of the Wolfgang Laib Wax Room (2013), the Phillips Collection’s first permanent space devoted to a single artist since the creation of the Rothko Room.

His publications include Hiroshi Sugimoto: Conceptual Forms and Mathematical Models (2015); Yves Klein By Himself: His Life And Thought (2010); Yves Klein: Works, Writing (2010); The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary And The Postmodern Condition (2015); Thought Through My Eyes: Writings on Art, 1977–2005 (2006); and The Essential Mark Rothko (2003). He translated and edited Yves Klein's complete writings from French into English, Overcoming The Problematics Of Art: The Writings Of Yves Klein (2007), and, most recently, from French and Italian, the complete correspondence of Nicolas Poussin, Your Very Humble and Very Affectionate Servant: The Letters of Nicolas Poussin, 1630–1665 (2025).

September 2025

Field Notes

Ordinary Men

The Suicide State