New Objectivity - 920

Narrator (f):

Since the Renaissance, the self-portrait has offered artists an opportunity to define and reflect on both themselves and their artistic conception. With their political and social upheaval, the 1920s produced a large number of self-portraits. But Hartlaub’s exhibition of 1925 excluded important woman artists such as Jeanne Mammen, Kate Diehn-Bitt, and Lotte Laserstein.

Narrator (m):

The introduction of women’s suffrage in 1918 and the opening of nearly all German art academies to women expanded their professional opportunities considerably after World War I. The numerous self-portraits by women artists in particular document these changes. They were predestined to live out the new image for women and also to depict it in their art.

Narrator (f):

In her Self-Portrait in the Studio, Lotte Laserstein presents herself with a critical, reflective gaze and yet self-confident in front of the backdrop of the metropolis of Berlin, where she had to assert herself as a young artist amid the competition. Laserstein was accepted to the academy in Berlin in 1921–22 and soon enjoyed her first successes. As an unmarried woman, she led an independent and unconventional life. Her central theme was the human image, often portraying her partner, Traute Rose—sometimes in the nude.

Narrator (m):

Her life changed drastically when the National Socialists seized power. As a “three-quarter Jew,” she was forced to leave Germany in 1937. She was able to settle in Sweden and keep her head above water as a portraitist. Like many other artists in exile and female artists of her generation, however, she never managed to build on her early successes.