Marie Laurencin: Setting the Scene
Paris in the 1920s was marked by a revolutionary spirit and artistic freedom. In this environment, Marie Laurencin (1883–1956) established herself as one of the most successful woman artists of the French avant-garde.
Emerging from the circle of the Cubists and closely connected to Guillaume Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, and Pablo Picasso, she developed an abstracted style of figuration in pastel hues. Her work, which focuses almost exclusively on the representation of women, explores femininity and identity as variable, consciously performed roles. Laurencin not only worked as a painter, but also designed stage sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes. Her images provided inspiration for leading fashion designers, with whom she also exhibited and created spatial environments. She also authored poems and illustrated books. The exhibition showcases an artist whose central role in modernism has long been underestimated.
The show includes numerous loans from the Musée Marie Laurencin in Tokyo, presented in Germany for the first time.