German women artists

This article considers examples of female nudes produced by women artists between 1870 and 1920 in the light of their artistic training, with particular reference to the life-class.  It also addresses other significant educational influences that affected these artists as well as  factors in their personal lives that made it important for them to seek artistic expression in the female nude. 
In the 19th century, the female nude became the dominant vision of nudity, embodying abstract notions of ideal beauty.  It has been said that mastering these portrayals was not only crucial for artistic success but also ‘central to the construction of artistic identity’, but in any event, for centuries, perfection in the depiction of the nude form was perceived as one of the pinnacles, perhaps the pinnacle, of an academic art education, and the life-class was central to achieving this goal. As social and educational change was gaining momentum, more women began to participate in the art world and in 1871 the British census recorded 1,069 professional women artists, whereas in 1841 there had been only 278. By 1871, after a reluctant start, the Royal Academy had admitted a total of 117 women to its Schools, and yet it continued to keep the doors of the life-class firmly shut to them.  Ambitious women artists felt this exclusion keenly and began to demand access to the life-class – or at least to a draped nude.  As Linda Nochlin, the first feminist writer to explore ‘the Question of the Nude’, pointed out: ‘To be deprived of this ultimate stage of training, meant, in effect to be deprived of the possibility of creating major art works, unless one were a very ingenious lady indeed.’

This article explores the explores the obstacles women artists had to overcome and the strategies they deployed in their attempts to do so.

The Norwegian-born French painter Anna-Eva Bergman (1909-1987) was a multifarious artist. Prior to the 1950s she drew illustrations and caricatures for the press, kept notebooks on her ideas about art, published articles, wrote an autobiography, a novel and a cookery book. At the same time, she explored the realm of painting, embarking down the path of abstraction since the early 1950s and ultimately forging a unique style using gold and silver foil as pictorial elements and archetypical forms derived from nature or based on Nordic mythology.
This text focuses on the theoretical foundations of and her artistic evolution towards abstraction linking both to several decisive biographical events. It was originally written for the monograph Anna-Eva Bergman published in 2011 by the Fondation Hans Hartung / Anna-Eva Bergman and Les presses du reel.

Inagotable en su trabajo en la apuesta entre el estudio, la dedicación, la disciplina y la creatividad, Silvia Keppler (artista plástica alemana) ha logrado con-solidar un estilo propio que participa de los alcances del arte abstracto y deotros elementos del arte contemporáneo, sin dejar de recurrir a elementos históricos, literarios y de su propia experiencia vital. En este número de Grafylia 16-17, hemos invitado a esta creadora que mantiene un tránsito constante entre Alemania y México. Su generosidad para ilustrar nuestro número se ha visto ampliada con una entrevista que aquí transcribimos.

Anna-Eva Bergman (1909-1987), Française d’origine norvégienne, est une artiste protéiforme. Jusqu’à la fin des années quarante, elle est dessinatrice et caricaturiste pour la presse, tient des carnets de notes et de réflexions sur l’art, écrit des articles, son autobiographie, un livre de cuisine… Menant en même temps son œuvre de peintre, elle s’engage dans l’abstraction dès le début des années cinquante. Entre autres singularités : son utilisation de feuilles d’or ou d’argent comme éléments picturaux, ses formes archétypales inspirées par la nature ou la mythologie norvégienne.
Ce texte traite de son évolution vers l’abstraction et de ses fondements théoriques, en les inscrivant dans quelques repères biographiques. Il fut écrit pour la monographie Anna-Eva Bergman, publiée en 2011 par la Fondation Hans Hartung / Anna-Eva Bergman et Les presses du réel.