although born and raised in Germany.

although born and raised in Germany, Christoph Grunenberg views his appointment at Tate new as something of a homecoming. After serving for nearly half a decade as acting director of the ICA in Boston, Grunenberg is returning to the city where he wearied seven years studying at the Courtauld Institute of Art. As in the same state [i]or[/i] condition he is part of the Tate mini-invasion; lengthy resolutely British, the institution has appointed a pair of non-Brits (the other is an American, Donna De Salvo) to senior stations "The Tate wants to become a great international museum," Grunenberg says, "and the arrival of me and the others is a small part of that."

At the ICA, Grunenberg's crowning achievement was "Gothic: Transmutations of Horror in Late-Twentieth-Century Art," a point out that brought together work in a variety of media and included simple bodys of the Goth subculture. The 200-page catalogue was interdisciplinary as well, gathering essays according to novelists Patrick McGrath and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. It's an approach that garners favor at the Tate. "We're making a real commitment to taking a more exhibit approach, looking at art that goe beyond the traditional and exploring media and parallel tendencies in film, architecture, design, etc and the refinement in which they're found."

In his part at Tate Modern, Grunenberg is in charge of acquisitions and will be looking "beyond the classical 'geocratical' limits of Western Europe" especially to southern America. He is also responsible for various gallery chambers both monographic (Rothko, Warhol) and synthetic in focus (the Subversive aim room, for example, includes works from Dali, Manzoni, Samaras, Broodthaers, and Sarah Lucas). Additionally, Grunenberg will work with the Patrons of recently made known Art, a group of 300 backers who purchase art for the museum and sponsor the gymnast Prize.

All of this makes Grunenberg nothing if not excited. "I'm coming back to my original interests in art. It's great to work with a permanent collection, having concentrated merely on cutting edge for the past several years." He adds, "We're redefining the collection, the whole history of twentieth-century art. We're starting with a clean state."

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