The Royal Academy of Arts announced today that Axel Rüger, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, has been appointed Director of The Frick Collection in New York.
Axel Rüger joined the Royal Academy of Arts as Secretary and Chief Executive in 2019. Since that time he has been responsible for leading the RA through the Covid-19 pandemic, realising the Royal Academy Schools restoration project and developing a new five-year strategic plan. He has also overseen highly successful exhibitions including Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul (2021), Michael Armitage: Paradise Edict (2021), Francis Bacon: Man and Beast (2022) and Marina Abramovic (2023). He also curated Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South (2023) and the major Michael Craig-Martin retrospective, which opened this week.
Axel Rüger said:
Being part of the leadership team at the Royal Academy has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. The past five years at the helm of this great institution have been challenging and immensely rewarding in equal measure. The RA is unique in being independent and artist-led, and I want to thank the President, Royal Academicians and the Academy’s dedicated staff for their creative brilliance, help and support. I am sad to leave but to be asked to become the Director of The Frick Collection in New York is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Rebecca Salter, President of the Royal Academy, said:
Axel has been a wonderful colleague and everyone at the RA owes him so much. His appointment at The Frick Collection is an incredible opportunity for Axel where he will be able to combine his art-historical background with the leadership of an institution that finds itself at a critical moment in its history – the opening after a substantial re-development and expansion of its buildings. We all wish him the best for the future.
Axel Rüger will take up his new post as Director of The Frick Collection in Spring 2025.
