Petra Kipphoff, the legendary art critic of DIE ZEIT, died on June 1 at the age of 86. For decades she accompanied the exhibition scene in Germany in a influential way and reported as comprehensively as precisely on documenta in Kassel.

Kipphoff joined the feuilleton of DIE ZEIT in the 1960s and remained there without interruption until 2002 as an editor and then, until recently, as an author. During this time she wrote more than 700 articles. Her exhibition reports, which began in 1972 with documenta 5, and her characteristically witty coverage of the mishaps and successes of documenta are still worth reading.