Radical! Women*Artists and Modernism 1910-1950
Radical! encourages visitors to think differently about Modernism—to see it as multivoiced, international, and contradictory. It launches a dialogue between over sixty women*artists from more than twenty countries, presenting paintings alongside textile designs, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and films. Regardless of their background or visual language, these artists are united by their search for new forms of expression and representation, as well as their determination to redefine artistic and social boundaries.
The exhibition Radical! Women*Artists and Modernism 1910–1950 is a joint project with Museum Arnhem and the Saarlandmuseum – Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken.
Classic art history mostly portrays the Modernist era as a linear sequence of disparate movements. It often outright omits or makes only brief mention of works by women, queer people, and people of color. Radical! challenges this narrative. Instead of perpetuating these stylistic pigeonholes, the exhibition foregrounds the individuality of each artist’s approach, with a spectrum of styles ranging from abstract to figurative, from critical to activistic. What makes these approaches radical is not just the way they question social and artistic conventions, but mainly the tenacity with which the artists—often in the face of resistance—went their own way. Many of their subjects are just as relevant today as they were a century ago.
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Radical! encourages visitors to think differently about Modernism—to see it as multivoiced, international, and contradictory. It launches a dialogue between over sixty women*artists from more than twenty countries, presenting paintings alongside textile designs, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and films. Regardless of their background or visual language, these artists are united by their search for new forms of expression and representation, as well as their determination to redefine artistic and social boundaries.
The exhibition Radical! Women*Artists and Modernism 1910–1950 is a joint project with Museum Arnhem and the Saarlandmuseum – Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken.
Classic art history mostly portrays the Modernist era as a linear sequence of disparate movements. It often outright omits or makes only brief mention of works by women, queer people, and people of color. Radical! challenges this narrative. Instead of perpetuating these stylistic pigeonholes, the exhibition foregrounds the individuality of each artist’s approach, with a spectrum of styles ranging from abstract to figurative, from critical to activistic. What makes these approaches radical is not just the way they question social and artistic conventions, but mainly the tenacity with which the artists—often in the face of resistance—went their own way. Many of their subjects are just as relevant today as they were a century ago.
Artists on show
- Alexandra Aleksandrovna Exster
- Alice Lex-Nerlinger
- Alice Neel
- Benedetta Cappa Marinetti
- Charley Toorop
- Claude Cahun
- Elizabeth Catlett
- Erika Giovanna Klien
- Fahr-el-Nissa Zeid
- Gazbia Sirry
- Gertrud Arndt
- Hannah Höch
- Inji Efflatoun
- Jacoba van Heemskerck
- Jeanne Mammen
- Katarzyna Kobro
- Käthe Kollwitz
- Leonor Fini
- Lotte Laserstein
- Marlow Moss
- Romaine Brooks
- Sonia Delaunay
- Sophie Taeuber-Arp
- Tamara de Lempicka
Contact details

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Radical! launches a lively dialogue between over sixty women*artists from more than twenty countries, with paintings presented alongside textile designs, sculptures alongside prints, drawings alongside photographs and films.