Artist couples of modernism. Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann in discourse
Museum Purrmann-Haus, Speyer
September 25, 2022 – March 26, 2023
Artist couples are a particularly interesting and multi-layered topic that is of great topicality and significance due to the rediscovery and re-evaluation of numerous female artists. For a long time, great art was seen as a predominantly male achievement. This perspective needs to be corrected.
In the exhibition “Artist Couples of Modernism. Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann in Discourse”, the paintings and lives of Hans Purrmann and Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann enter into a dialog with the works and biographies of the artist couples Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann and Minna Tube, Reinhold and Sabine Lepsius, Oskar and Marg Moll, Leo von König and Mathilde Tardif and Anna von Hansemann, Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin. As key personalities of the European avant-garde of modernism, all of these artists led painting in new directions.
Top-class loans from important public collections and private collections tell the stories of different partnerships, life models and artistic careers. On display are expressive self-portraits and portraits as well as outstanding paintings, drawings and photographs from the shared life phase of important modern artist couples. There are numerous works by the artists to discover, which are being exhibited for the first time since their creation. The questions about the path of training, about the reality and everyday life of artistic work, about position and rank in the exhibition system and art market, and about the distribution of roles in partnership and family shed light on a broad spectrum of diverse life images. Curated by Maria Leitmeyer, the exhibition takes visitors on an impressive journey into the powerful world of modernist painting and provides fascinating insights into the biographies of the most important artist couples of their time
Accompanying the exhibition, a wide-ranging, cross-generational program anchors the exciting phenomenon of artist couples in the present day. Readings, concerts, themed tours and workshops as well as an educational program for children, school classes and other target groups bring the exhibition to life.
Further information can be found here.
Museum Purrmann-Haus, Speyer
Kleine Greifengasse 14
67346 Speyer
https://www.speyer.de/de/kultur/bildende-kunst/purrmann-haus/