City of Women Female Artists in Vienna from 1900 to 1938
Belvedere 25 January 2019 to 19 May 2019
Today,
hardly anyone knows who they were, even though they made a part of art
history: artists such as Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Helene Funke, and Erika
Giovanna Klien contributed significantly to Viennese Modernism and
artistic trends that manifested after the First World War. To
commemorate these artists, their art, and their emancipatory
achievements, a long overdue retrospective has now been staged in the
Lower Belvedere.
The
exhibition expands the view of Viennese Modernism and focuses on those
women who actively helped shape the art scene at the beginning of the
twentieth century. At that time, women who wanted to become artists were
still at a severe disadvantage. They were denied access to education
and artists’ associations, and thus to exhibition opportunities. In
spite of these hurdles, some of them managed to successfully build a
career. In the predominantly male art business, they had to fight hard
to gain a foothold. They found training opportunities and developed
strategies to market themselves. By establishing their own artists’
associations, they were able to network and become active in the art
scene. Many of them exhibited at the Secession, the Hagenbund, the Salon
Pisko, and the Miethke Gallery. Despite the fact that, in recent years,
the lives and works of some of these formerly renowned artists have
been researched and compiled into retrospectives, their work is still
underestimated in importance and barely appreciated for what it is.
This
show brings these women back into focus. On view, in part, are
rediscovered works – some of which are being presented for the first
time ever – by those artists who were known in their time, but whose
eminence today has completely vanished. They were nonetheless able to
leave their marks on art movements such as Atmospheric Impressionism
(‘Stimmungsimpressionismus’), Secessionism, Expressionism, Kinetism, and
New Objectivity.
The
exhibition expands the view of Viennese Modernism and focuses on those
women who actively helped shape the art scene at the beginning of the
twentieth century. At that time, women who wanted to become artists were
still at a severe disadvantage. They were denied access to education
and artists’ associations, and thus to exhibition opportunities. In
spite of these hurdles, some of them managed to successfully build a
career. In the predominantly male art business, they had to fight hard
to gain a foothold. They found training opportunities and developed
strategies to market themselves. By establishing their own artists’
associations, they were able to network and become active in the art
scene. Many of them exhibited at the Secession, the Hagenbund, the Salon
Pisko, and the Miethke Gallery. Despite the fact that, in recent years,
the lives and works of some of these formerly renowned artists have
been researched and compiled into retrospectives, their work is still
underestimated in importance and barely appreciated for what it is.
This
show brings these women back into focus. On view, in part, are
rediscovered works – some of which are being presented for the first
time ever – by those artists who were known in their time, but whose
eminence today has completely vanished. They were nonetheless able to
leave their marks on art movements such as Atmospheric Impressionism
(‘Stimmungsimpressionismus’), Secessionism, Expressionism, Kinetism, and
New Objectivity.
