Feminine, (self) portrait and fluidity, the new exhibition of the Fondation Beyeler present an incredible ensemble of œuvre about the (self) definition of women
For themselves...
9 artists, 1 curator and 1 institution, the new exhibition curated by Theodora Vischer (Senior Curator at large of the museum) showcase an ensemble of artists and their practices around a single theme: (self) portrait.
Therefore, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lotte Laserstein, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas, Cindy Sherman and Elizabeth Peyton define or redefine this genre thought their practice as an artist of the 19th century until today's world.
But, they go beyond, they are key figures and artists from the 1870s to the present day, and they redefined a few things. First, an artist can be a women or a male, and their portrait or self-portrait can enter into a dialogue with their personal feelings and visions.
All of these changes arrive in Europe in the late 1870s, when a women can be a "real" artist and not a seater or a student. Therefore, we can see the first female artist in the impressionist group : Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.
Then the 20th and 21st century artists will follow with important step and creation of the modernist language : Lotte Laserstein, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel and so on.
They will all experiment with themselves and their influence, from the surrealist to the use of gender, media, photo or the New Objectivity.
1870-1914, the starting point of a (self) reflection
Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot are at the starting point of this inner revolution in the art industry. Therefore, the two artists became a friend of many Impressionist painters, and started to paint like them as a hobby.
While Berthe Morisot started her career during her childhood due to the class of drawings and paintings she had with her teacher. But, Mary Cassatt started her career "more professionally" with her art studies in the USA and in Europe before settling in Paris in the late 1870s.
But, as Berthe Morisot and her family had a long history of (Male) artist friends, Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas as the most important. Cassatt was discovered during the Salon, when Degas saw her work, and he gave it a high regard since them. While we don't know if the four of them had a conversation, they influenced each others indirectly.
The group later belongs to a larger circle of new and innovative painter, opposed to the Académie, the Salon de Paris and the official exhibition. Nonetheless, they will make their mark with the Impressionist exhibition.
All of this story is told, indirectly with the works of the two artists. While the show cover the works of Berthe Morisot from 1869 to 1885, the œuvre of Mary Cassatt is from 1878 to the 1890s.
Both of them started to think and painted the same subject : leisure, urban life, domestic scene, everyday scenes (reading, drinking tea, observing, etc.). All of these subjects are quite rare in the Impressionist picture made by Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, it makes them even more special in the history and contribution of the Impressionist.
Before, During and After the war
Created between 1900 and 1907 the works of Paula Modersohn-Becker resonate with the works of Lotte Laserstein, made between 1923 and 1933. Therefore, the two artists have a common grounds in their practice and their life.
They live and grow up in the same geographical region : Germany and Poland, and more widely the East part of Europe. While both of them stop working, died or move during the First and Second World War, they are more willing to explore a new part of the globe than the "oldest generation". As a consequence, the two artists had 2 different perceptions of the œuvre they made.
Paula Modersohn-Becker was clearly a pioneer of modernism at the edge of the 20th century. She was in an artist's colony named "Worpswede" due to her avant-garde practices and subject. While she also made a number of landscapes, still life or genre picture, she's mostly known for her figures (Portrait or Self-Portrait).
With her small format, her portrait express a bold and radical style and expression while using classical furniture : oil paint on canvas. Most of the time, the scenes and compositions of her works show a seater or a face without a "specific background" (generally a monochromatic background).
The Background connect to the figure with an essential feature of the figure (capture entirely or in detail) and the resemblance and emotion of the seater.
On another side, Lotte Laserstein turn her back from Germany (due to the Nazi regime) for the freshness of Sweden. Therefore, she preferred the warm-toned, sensual and detailed craft to made during the long and isolating winter month.
Due to her academic and traditional studies of art, Laserstein develop a realistic and outstanding representation of everyday scenes in the 1920s. Furthermore, she will influence the art of the New Objectivity (Otto Dix, Hans Mertens, Max Beckmann, etc.) and the city of Berlin during the Weimar Republic.
Hence, her love of portrait and the depiction of different figures she saw in the street or in her artist friend. But, she's also depicting the scenes of everyday life influenced by photographed and her life in Sweden and in Germany between the two wars.
Along a "new path"
My Grandparents, My Parents, and I (Family Tree), 1936, Oil and Tempera on zinc, 30,7 x 34,5 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Allan Roos, M.D., and B. Mathieu Roos, 1976, Photo : © Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México D.F. / 2021, ProLitteris, Zurich
Created between the surrealist and the modernist, the works of Frida Kahlo and Alice Neel is a complex and fruitful relation.
Nonetheless, the inspiration of European Surrealism and her strong and important pre-Columbian culture and Folk Art evokes the richness of her ancestors. In this context, the Portrait and self representation of Frida are not made as a biographical content, but more or less than an assemblage of figures, objects and accessories around the seater to create a more complete atmosphere.
On another side, the work of the American painter Aline Neel depict the simplicity and reality of her life as she remained true to figuration.
While her long and intriguing career spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s explore the use of model in a realistic and conservative approach, she's not "just making a portrait", she's telling a story thought paint. Due to her practice, she asks the seater to stay seated for long hours or days to capture his individuality.
As a matter of fact, she was greatly influence by the tradition of American Realism or the Ashcan School, which was still in effect in 1921 at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, where Neel had enrolled for her studies. At that moment, she's starting to take portraiture as a global thinking, from poor to rich people, from popular to unknown.
Contemporary outlook on her(self)
The last rooms of the exhibitions are dedicated to three contemporary and living artists : Marlene Dumas (she already had a show at the Fondation Beyeler in 2015), Cindy Sherman and Elizabeth Peyton. Both of them helped the curator to choose a comprehensive and interesting array of work for the exhibition.
While they all had a few commons ground, they all have Bachelor or a Master degree of Art or Visual Art, and they all live in big cities (Amsterdam or NY), they all feel concerned about the genre of portraiture.
On one side, Marlene Dumas might be one of the most "acclaimed" and "well-known" artist in Europe. After studying at the university of Cape Town, she moved to the Netherlands in 1976 to become an artist. When she arrived in Europe, she became fascinated with the influence of images and paintings in Europe and in museums.
Therefore, she started her career as a painter of portrait and human figures. But, beforehand she made a lot of drawings, watercolors or sketches about a figure from her extensive archive of photograph (public and private photos of individual). She then made a number of portrait (group or individual) to depict her wide subject such as love, death, identity and mourning.
On the other side of the ocean Cindy Sherman is a photograph influenced by cinema, television, fashion photography, internet and mass media.
In the 1970s, she started to explore the meaning and creative process of self-portraits photography, this is how she started her signature style of self-representation in a specific environment. During her shoot, she serves as a creative director, makeup artist, photographer, model, etc.
Her multilevel roles helped her understand and question the construction of her female identity, social role and behavior in today's society.
The seaters of Elizabeth Peyton are friends, lovers, public or private individuals, celebrities or political figures painted with a subjective and empathic way. With her limited and small dots of colors, she made the seater look younger, soft and full of potential. This is why she uses the theme of beauty, love or individuality in her painting and more global in her work.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Fondation Beyeler
Date: 21.9.2021 – 2.1.2022
Curators: Theodora Vischer
Ticket: Available online OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Fondation Beyeler
Baselstrasse 101
CH-4125 Riehen/Basel
Phone: +41 61 645 97 00
Fax: +41 61 645 97 19
Mail: info@fondationbeyeler.ch