From 11 October 2024 to 26 January 2025, Hessen Kassel Heritage will be paying homage to women artists and Informalism from the 1950s/60s with "InformELLEs", a special exhibition at the New Gallery.
Between the early 1950s and the early 1960s, art informel, or informalism, became the dominant art movement in Europe. Completely beyond the classic principles of form and design, the works focused on the open creation process. At first glance, this abstract movement appears to be dominated primarily by art produced by male artists. However, this exhibition now examines art informel from a new perspective, and pays homage to sixteen of its leading female proponents, including Maria Lassnig, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff, Judit Reigl, Mary Bauermeister, Marie-Louise von Rogister and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. It will not only feature works by these well-known names, but also by rediscovered other long forgotten female artists. On the basis of questions about networks, exhibition participations and reception from a sociology of art perspective, it will also explore the mechanisms of the art business.
The exhibition is a collaborative project organised by Hessen Kassel Heritage, Kunsthalle Schweinfurt and the Emil Schumacher Museum in Hagen in cooperation with the Research Centre of Art Informel at the Art History Institute of the University of Bonn.