Women Artists in Dialogue

April 27 to August 6, 2017

Painting, Photography, Graphics

Women Artists in Dialogue

April 27 to August 6, 2017

The exhibition “Women Artists in Dialogue” is conceived as a visual conversation between women artists from different European countries who belong to the generation born around 1900: heads, nudes, still life, landscapes and portraits by Lotte Laserstein, Käthe Loewenthal, Ilse Heller-Lazard, Else Lohmann, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Alice Lex-Nerlinger, Gerda Rotermund, Eva Besnyö, Florence Henri, Natalia Goncharova and many others, most of whom reflect currents in modernist art after the First World War. 

This spring sees the third edition of “Women Artists in Dialogue”, which draws on the stories of the lives, career and work of many artists brought to public attention by Das Verborgene Museum in recent decades.

At the centre of the show are two works from the 1920s: the Expressionist “Still Life with Japanese Doll” (c. 1925) by Martel Schwichtenberg (1896–1945) and the Constructivist “Still Life with Cups” (1928) by Lou Loeber (1894–1983).

Schwichtenberg, who chose the forename Martel in reference to the well-known Cognac, featured in exhibitions organised by the Galerie Flechtheim in Berlin, was an active member of the Association of Women Artists in Berlin and modelled her appearance with gentleman’s suit and tie on that of sculptor Milly Steger (1881–1948), whose larger-than-life female nudes on the façade of the theatre in Hagen had caused such a furore in 1911. The Dutch painter Lou Loeber, two years her senior, adopted a rigorously Constructivist technique. Her art was influenced by colleagues from the De Stijl movement as well as  Constructivists Kasimir Malevich and Natalia Goncharova and Alice Lex and Oskar Nerlinger. Lou Loeber did not completely dispense with objects, and unlike her colleague Mondrian she incorporated curves and circles. 

The exhibition, with about 60 paintings, photographs, drawings, prints and sculptures by some 30 artists, concludes with two abstract works which derive their impact entirely from the use of polished gold leaf: “Skin” (1961) by the Norwegian Anna-Eva Bergman (1909–1987) and the “Golden Cloth” (2005) by Dutch artist Beppe Kessler (1952).

 

Künstlerinnen im Dialog / Women Artists in Dialogue
April 27 –  August 6, 2017
DAS VERBORGENE MUSEUM
Dokumentation der Kunst von Frauen e.V.
Schlüterstraße 70, 10625 Berlin
Opening hours: Thu & Fr 15–19 ; Sa & So 12–16 h

www.dasverborgenemuseum.de