We Will Go Right Up to the Sun. Female Pioneers of Geometric Abstraction
16/11/2024 - 21/04/2025
In winter 2024, the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum is focusing on the significance of female artists in the development of geometric abstraction in the 20th century with Wir werden bis zur Sonne gehen. Pionierinnen der geometrischen Abstraktion [We Will Go Right Up to the Sun. Female Pioneers of Geometric Abstraction].
Even today, names such as Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, or Piet Mondrian are predominantly associated with non-representational painting after World War I. Correcting this one-sided narrative is a key approach of the exhibition project. In reality, artists like Lyubov Popova, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, or Sonia Delaunay were pioneers in the development of a geometric-abstract visual language. From the 1940s onwards, artists such as Verena Loewensberg, Aurélie Nemours, or Vera Molnár decisively contributed to the advancement of non-representational art.
Similar developments can be observed beyond the cultural centers of the Western world, for instance, in Central and Latin America. Here, among others, artists like Lygia Clark in Brazil, Lydi Prati in Argentina, or Loló Soldevilla in Cuba developed a unique constructive-abstract visual language.
The exhibition shows female artists worldwide were actively involved in significant exhibitions throughout their lives, contributed to the theoretical discourse, left behind a unique oeuvre, and of-ten developed ideas more radically than their male counterparts. The Wilhelm-Hack-Museum aims to contribute to the revision of the male-dominated perspective on abstraction and the growing interest in recent years on the achievements of women artists in non-representational art from 1914 to the 1970s.
The exhibition and the catalouge is generously supported by the BASF SE, the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Rudolf-August Oetker-Stiftung.
A generously illustrated publication with scholarly contributions from international experts will accompany the exhibition, published by Hirmer Verlag.
Including works by: Anni Albers, Anna Andreeva, Marina Apollonio, Margarita Azurdia, Ella Bergmann-Michel, Lina Bo Bardi, Martha Boto, Marianne Brandt, Marcelle Cahn, Regina Cassolo Bracchi, Geneviève Claisse, Lygia Clark, Franciska Clausen, Dadamaino, Sonia Delaunay, Germaine Derbecq, Lucia Di Luciano, Kseniia Ender, Alexandra Exter, Nélida Fedullo, María Freire, Gego, Eileen Gray, Florence Henri, Barbara Hepworth, Carmen Herrera, Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein, Katarzyna Kobro, Benita Koch-Otte, Jeanne Kosnick-Kloss, Judith Lauand, Kim Lim, Lou Loeber, Verena Loewensberg, Marta Lutz, Hilda Mans, María Martorell, Dóra Maurer, Hedi Mertens, Lucia Moholy, Vera Molnar, Marlow Moss, Aurélie Nemours, Lygia Pape, Charlotte Perriand, Helga Philipp, Gudrun Piper, Lyubov Popova, Charlotte Posenenske, Lidy Prati, Margaretha Reichardt, Olga Rozanova, Ana Sacerdote, Aen Sauerborn, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher, Loló Soldevilla, Varvara Stepanova, Gunta Stölzl, Paula Straus, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Mary Vieira, Shizuko Yoshikawa.
With loans from: Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau; ARoS – Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus; Bröhan-Museum, Landesmuseum für Jugendstil, Art Deco und Funktionalismus, Berlin; Government Art Collection, London; Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebæk; Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, Stuttgart; MK&G, Museum Kunst & Gewerbe, Hamburg; MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection, Thessaloniki; mpk – Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern; Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris; MAMCS, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de la Ville de Strasbourg; Musée de Grenoble; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch; Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, Łódź; Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design Nürnberg; Kunstmuseum Reutlingen / konkret; Sammlung Würth, Künzelsau; Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau; Theatermuseum, Wien; Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, and more.
