Friday, November 13, 2015

STORM WOMEN. WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE AVANT-GARDE IN BERLIN 1910-1932

The Schirn Kunsthalle Frank­furt is devoting an exten­sive topical exhi­bi­tion to the women of the STURM begin­ning on October 30, 2015.

For the first time ever, eighteen women STURM artists representing Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and the New Objectivity will be presented in a comprehensive exhibition featuring around 280 works of art. 

The presentation is a somewhat different survey of the most important currents in avant-garde art in Berlin in the early years of the twentieth century.

The STURM heralded the advent of modern art. Orig­i­nally the name of a maga­zine founded in 1910 devoted to promoting expres­sionist art, the term STURM (English: STORM) soon assumed the char­acter of a trade­mark. Herwarth Walden, the publisher of the journal, also founded the STURM gallery in Berlin in 1912. Numerous women artists, including many from other coun­tries, were presented in Germany for the first time at his gallery. As a move­ment, the STURM repre­sented a program—one that opposed concep­tual barriers, the estab­lish­ment in general, and the bour­geois char­acter of Wilhelminian society and advo­cated the total freedom of all arts and styles. Composed of friends with similar inter­ests, the STURM network served as a forum for inten­sive and animated discourse on the ideas, theo­ries, and concepts of the avant-garde. The addi­tional STURM evenings, the newly founded STURM academy, the STURM theater and book­shop as well as occa­sional balls and a cabaret offered the artists of the STURM a variety of plat­forms and made the diverse artistic currents and tenden­cies in Berlin during the years from 1910 to 1930 acces­sible to a broad public.

Among the best-known artists repre­sented in the show are Sonia Delaunay, Alexandra Exter, Natalja Goncharova, Else Lasker-Schüler, Gabriele Münter, and Mari­anne von Were­fkin. They are joined by a number of largely unknown or less familiar artists, among them Marthe Donas, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Hilla von Rebay, Lavinia Schulz, and Maria Uhden.
Each of the eigh­teen women artists of the STURM will be presented along with her most impor­tant works in a sepa­rate room at the exhi­bi­tion. They are artists from Germany, the Nether­lands, Belgium, France, Sweden, Ukraine, and Russia whose works were exhib­ited at the STURM gallery or published in DER STURM maga­zine.

The writer and composer Herwarth Walden (1878−1941) exhib­ited works by Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, and Marc Chagall, the artists of Der Blaue Reiter, and the Italian Futur­ists, but he also actively promoted well over thirty women painters and sculp­tors strate­gi­cally and without bias. He was regarded as a visionary and a pioneer on behalf of abstrac­tion and modern art in general, and he united the inter­na­tional avant-garde with his programs. For many women artists, the STURM repre­sented their first big chance, for in the early years of the twen­tieth century they were neither fully recog­nized by society nor did they have access to acad­emic training compa­rable to that of their male colleagues. The life stories, personal circum­stances, and crit­ical recep­tion of the eigh­teen women artists of the STURM are all very different, and their styles vary consid­er­ably as well. Yet viewed as a group, they repre­sent an impres­sive panorama of modern art.

For this exhi­bi­tion, the Schirn is presenting a selec­tion of outstanding paint­ings, works on paper, prints, wood­cuts, stage sets, costumes, masks, and histor­ical photographs acquired on loan from promi­nent museums as well as univer­sity and private collec­tions, including, among others, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Yale Univer­sity Art Gallery in New Haven, the Theater Museum in St. Peters­burg, the Tate and Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the National Museum in Belgrade, the Museo Thyssen-Borne­misza in Madrid, the Moderna Museet in Stock­holm, the Städtische Galerie im Lenbach­haus in Munich, and the Von-der-Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal.

IMAGES

 


Natalja Sergejewna Gontscharowa, Gardening, 1908, Oil on canvas, 102.9 x 123.2 cm, Photo © Tate, London 2015, VG Bild- Kunst, Bonn 2015





Sonia Delaunay, Portuguese Market, 1915, Oil and wax-paint on canvas, 90.5 x 90.5 cm, Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Firenze
 



Magda Langenstraß-Uhlig, Movement, c. 1925, Gouache over graphite on paper, 25.1 x 34.8 cm, Karl Peter Röhl Stiftung, Weimar KPRS-2007/4928 © Photo Stefan Renno, Weimar, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015 



 
Marthe Donas, Still Life with Bottle and Cup, 1917, Collage of lace, sandpaper, cloth, netting, and paint on composition board, 53 x 38.6 cm, Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Collection Société Anonyme, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015 



Marcelle Cahn, Woman and Sail, c. 1926/27, Oil on canvas, 66 x 50 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS) © Photo Musées de Strasbourg, A. Plisson 



Sigrid Hjertén, Woman with Fur and Red Hat, 1915, Oil on canvas, 116 x 90 cm, Private collection, Photo: Reproduction © per@myrehed.com 



Gabriele Münter, Apples on Blue, 1908/09, Oil on cardboard, 52,5 x 39 cm, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz - MUSEUM GUNZENHAUSER, Property of Stiftung Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015


Gabriele Münter, Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin, c. 1909, Oil on cardboard, 81 x 55 cm, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, München, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015





Marianne von Werefkin, City in Lithuania, 1913/14, Tempera on paper over cardboard, 56,5 x 71,5 cm, Fondazione Marianne Werefkin Museo Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Ascona



Alexandra Exter, Costume design inhabitant of Mars in Aelita, 1924, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 53 x 36 cm, Collection Nina and Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky, Donation to the Charitable Fund “Konstantinovsky”, 2013 © St Petersburg State Museum of Theater



Jacoba van Heemskerck, Houses in Suiderland, Drawing No. 13, 1914, Ink, 48 x 63 cm, Kunstmuseum Bern, Donation Nell Walden


Emmy Klinker, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1920/21, Oil on cardboard, 44 x 35.5 cm / 56 x 47.5 x 4.5 cm, Von der Heydt- Museum Wuppertal © Photo Medienzentrum, Antje Zeis-Loi




Else Lasker Schüler, The Snake-Worshipper on the Market Square of Thebes, 1912, Ink, colored pencils, collaged silver paper, 28,3 x 22,5 cm, Franz Marc Stiftung, Donation Stiftung Etta und Otto Stangl © Franz Marc Museum, Kochel a. See




Marcelle Cahn, Abstract Composition, 1925, Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 49.7 cm, Musée de Grenoble © Photo Musée de Grenoble



Sonia Delaunay, Dessin B53, 1924, Gouache and pencil on paper, 100 x 75 (122 x 87 cm), Private Collection, Photo © Private Archives 



Marthe Donas, Cubist Head, 1917, Pencil on paper, 27.5 x 22 / 60 x 65 cm, Private collection © Photo Cedric Verhelst, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Marcelle Cahn, Woman and Sail, c. 1926/27, Oil on canvas, 66 x 50 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS) © Photo Musées de Strasbourg, A. Plisson
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Marcelle Cahn, Abstract Composition, 1925, Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 49.7 cm, Musée de Grenoble © Photo Musée de Grenoble
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Sonia Delaunay, Portuguese Market, 1915, Oil and wax-paint on canvas, 90.5 x 90.5 cm, Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Firenze
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Sonia Delaunay, Dessin B53, 1924, Gouache and pencil on paper, 100 x 75 (122 x 87 cm), Private Collection, Photo © Private Archives
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Marthe Donas, Still Life with Bottle and Cup, 1917, Collage of lace, sandpaper, cloth, netting, and paint on composition board, 53 x 38.6 cm, Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Collection Société Anonyme, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Marthe Donas, Cubist Head, 1917, Pencil on paper, 27.5 x 22 / 60 x 65 cm, Private collection © Photo Cedric Verhelst, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Alexandra Exter, Costume design inhabitant of Mars in Aelita, 1924, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 53 x 36 cm, Collection Nina and Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky, Donation to the Charitable Fund “Konstantinovsky”, 2013 © St Petersburg State Museum of Theater
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Natalja Sergejewna Gontscharowa, Gardening, 1908, Oil on canvas, 102.9 x 123.2 cm, Photo © Tate, London 2015, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Jacoba van Heemskerck, Houses in Suiderland, Drawing No. 13, 1914, Ink, 48 x 63 cm, Kunstmuseum Bern, Donation Nell Walden
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Sigrid Hjertén, Woman with Fur and Red Hat, 1915, Oil on canvas, 116 x 90 cm, Private collection, Photo: Reproduction © per@myrehed.com
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Emmy Klinker, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1920/21, Oil on cardboard, 44 x 35.5 cm / 56 x 47.5 x 4.5 cm, Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal © Photo Medienzentrum, Antje Zeis-Loi
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Magda Langenstraß-Uhlig, Movement, c. 1925, Gouache over graphite on paper, 25.1 x 34.8 cm, Karl Peter Röhl Stiftung, Weimar KPRS-2007/4928 © Photo Stefan Renno, Weimar, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Else Lasker Schüler, The Snake-Worshipper on the Market Square of Thebes, 1912, Ink, colored pencils, collaged silver paper, 28,3 x 22,5 cm, Franz Marc Stiftung, Donation Stiftung Etta und Otto Stangl © Franz Marc Museum, Kochel a. See
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Gabriele Münter, Apples on Blue, 1908/09, Oil on cardboard, 52,5 x 39 cm, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz - MUSEUM GUNZENHAUSER, Property of Stiftung Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Gabriele Münter, Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin, c. 1909, Oil on cardboard, 81 x 55 cm, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, München, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Marianne von Werefkin, City in Lithuania, 1913/14, Tempera on paper over cardboard, 56,5 x 71,5 cm, Fondazione Marianne Werefkin Museo Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Ascona