Professor Dr. Helmut Friedel is since 1990 Director of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich. In 2002 and 2004, he was nominated as commissioner for São Paulo Biennial. He curated many exhibitions on modern art, for example on The Blue Rider (1999), Wassily Kandinsky (1995 and 2008) and Franz Marc (2005) in addition to several exhibitions on contemporary art, including Joseph Beuys (1976), Jeff Wall (1996), Gerhard Richter (1998) and Thomas Ruff (2002).
In 1994, Friedel opened the exhibition space Kunstbau for Lenbachhaus. Friedel published numerous catalogues, books and essays on art from the sixteenth
century to today.