May 6 to September 3, 2023
In its new exhibition opening on May 6, Kunsthalle Emden presents “HIER BIN ICH!“ (‘HERE I AM’), a comprehensive survey of self-portraits by female artists, uniting around eighty works by approximately thirty 20th and 21st century artists in all artistic media.
Self-portraits look back on a long history dating all the way to the Renaissance. With few exceptions, however, larger volumes of female self-portraits only emerged since the 20th century, when it became possible for women to study at art academies. These self-representations provide information about how women artists see themselves or want to be seen, while at the same time giving testimony to the role of women in their respective times.
Female self-portraits feature moments of reflection, self-assertion, and wishful thinking. In themes such as motherhood, identity, and masquerades, but also by imitating and satirizing the male self-image, they illuminate complex social and political issues. At the same time, the works are deeply personal and accessible.
In the age of the selfie, women are often objectified, their images adapted to external conventions once again by professionalized self-portraiture.
The female artists’ self-portraits in "HIER BIN ICH!", on the other hand, present the great potential of this artistic genre in all its diversity, power, and depth.
The exhibition round is completed by selected female positions from the eminent Kunsthalle Emden collection.
Concurrently, the Kunsthalle features artist Jan Pleitner with the exhibition “Jenseits der Leere” (‘Beyond the Void’) (May 6 to Sept. 17) as well as a selection of masterpieces of classical Modernism from the Kunsthalle Emden collection.