Annegret Soltau
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Annegret Soltau (born 16 January 1946) is a German visual artist, born in
Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also called ...
, Germany. Her work marks a fundamental reference point in the art of the 1970s and 1980s.
Photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...
s of her own body and face sewn over or collaged with black thread are the most well-known works of the German artist.


Education

From 1967 to 1972 she studied with Hans Thiemann, Kurt Kranz,
Rudolf Hausner Rudolf Hausner (4 December 1914, Vienna – 25 February 1995, Mödling) was an Austrian painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. Hausner has been described as a "psychic realist" and "the first psychoanalytical painter" (Gunter Engelhardt). ...
and
David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg in Germany, 1972 at the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...
in Austria. In 1973 she received a DAAD scholarship for
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in Italy.


Life and work

Since 1973 she has freelanced, first in the sphere of painting and graphic art, then from 1975 actions ("permanente demonstration") and first photography and videoworks. In Soltau’s own words “Permanente Demonstration“ is “''an attempt to trigger states of consciousness through realization of an image in real life, i.e. make an image physically. The line, becomes a realized line, the person is part of the picture. Line and person are not two opposite things but one reality”.'' In "Selbst" the artist ties up her face with tight threads of black silk, just like a cocoon, of which she makes a photographic record that is subsequently stitched by following a geometric pattern that resembles a sign. The result is a self-harming self-portrait, an effigy that has been prevented, inhibited, forced into silence. Annegret Soltau writes her story as a woman on the blank page of her face; it is a history of conflict, impulsive reactions to the family environment, to the marginal position of women in the social context, to gender pressures and discrimination. As it cuts into the sensitive skin of her face, the thread distorts its shape but also enhances its beauty. In her Video-Performances and Phototableaus she wanted to make intimate processes like sexuality, pregnancy, birth, abortion, sickness and violence to become subjects of the arts. From 1977 to 1980 she dealt with her pregnancies and the birth of her two children. In the video "being pregnant" she observed her own body over the whole time period of nine months. She pointed out physical changes as well as psychological ones. The artist called the phases: panic, doubt, hope, loneliness, separation, oppression, reminiscence, oration, being-born. She asked herself the question: ''how can I combine creativity and motherhood without losing myself as my own person.'' The most complex and elaborate series of works is "generativ" (1994-2005), where she composes photographs of the naked bodies of her "female chain": her grandmother, her mother, her daughter and herself. "Generativ" shows the whole span of bodily change between young and old, between the fading body of age and the emerging body in puberty. "My main interest is the integration of body process in my work, in order to connect body and spirit as equal parts" (Annegret Soltau) Over the years, her face has transformed metaphorically into letters, numbers, data and paper documents (identity cards, passports, bank statements, cash machine receipts, dentist’s bills).


Honours

In 1982 she was awarded a working scholarship by the Arts Society of Bonn, in 1986/87 the
Villa Massimo Villa Massimo, short for Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo ( it, Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo), is a German cultural institution in Rome, established in 1910 and located in the Villa Massimo. The fellowship of the German Academy in Rom ...
prize in Rome in Italy, in 1998 the
Maria Sybilla Merian Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Meri ...
Prize (in the
State of Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
)"Vita" Annegret Soltau and in 2000 the Wilhelm-Loth-prize of the City of Darmstadt, where she is living.


Exhibitions

A retrospective exhibition of Soltau's work was shown at the exhibition halls of Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt in spring 2006. "More than Meets the Eye", Art Photography from the Deutsche Bank Collection on Tour through important Museums Latin America from 2006 until 2007 (Monterrey, Mexico City, Bogota, Lima, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo und Buenos Aires) 2007 until 2009 ''
WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution ''WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution'' was an exhibition of international women's art presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles from March 4–July 16, 2007. It later traveled to PS1 Contemporary Art Center, where it was on vie ...
'', The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,
National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...
, Washington, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York and
Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...
in Canada. 2010 "Donna: Avanguardia femminista negli anni ’70",
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna The ("national gallery of modern and contemporary art"), also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then Minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contempor ...
, Rome, Italy 2012 "
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...
and the Existencial Condition in Contemporary Art", Strozzina Foundazione,
Palazzo Strozzi Palazzo Strozzi is a palace in Florence, Italy. History The construction of the palace was begun in 1489 by Benedetto da Maiano, for Filippo Strozzi the Elder, a rival of the Medici who had returned to the city in November 1466 and desired the ...
, Firenze, Italy "artevida: corpo(body)", 28 June – 21 September 2014, curated by
Adriano Pedrosa Adriano Pedrosa is a Brazilian curator. He is the artistic director of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and the 2024 Venice Biennale. Among Pedrosa's most well-known curated shows is ''Histórias'', a series of shows at MASP each examining ...
and Rodigo Maura at Fundação Casa França-Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2013 until 2017 "WOMAN. Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s. Works from the SAMMLUNG VERBUND", Vienna (touring exhibition): "MUJER. La vanguardia feminista de los años 70".
Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...
, Madrid, Spain, "WOMAN" Palais des Beaux-Arts,
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, Belgium, Mjellby Art Museum, Halmstad, Sweden,
Hamburger Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...
, Hamburg, Germany and MUMOK. Museum moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna 2015 "GENDER IN ART", Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAK), Kraków, PL "PRIÈRE DE TOUCHER – The Touch of Art", 12 February until 16 May 2016,
Museum Tinguely The Museum Tinguely is an art museum in Basel, Switzerland that contains a permanent exhibition of the works of Swiss painter and sculptor Jean Tinguely. Located in the Solitudepark by the Rhine, the museum was designed by the Ticinese architect ...
, Basel, Switzerland Medicine in Art "MEDIZINE IN ART", 22.04.2016 - 02.10.2016, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAK), Kraków, PL "FEMINIST AVANT-GARDE OF THE 1970S". Works from the VERBUND Collection, Vienna, curated by Gabriele Schor and Anna Dannemann. The show is taking place at the
Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established i ...
in London from October 6, 2016 – January 29, 2017 "AGING PRIDE", 17.11.2017 - 11.03.2018
Belvedere museum Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...
, Vienna, Austria "Family Matters", 04.10.2019 - 30.08.2020 Dom Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria


References


Bibliography

* Heather Hanna: ''Woman Fraiming Hair: Serial Strategies in Contemporary Art'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015, * Annegret Soltau: ''ich selbst - myself'', Justus-Liebig-Verlag 2015 (German/English), * Gabriele Schor: ''Feminist Avantgarde - Art of the 1970s'', Prestel 2016, * * Baldur Greiner: ''Annegret Soltau: I was on a quest'', Lavishly illustrated biography in English, hardcover, 116 pages, Weststadt Verlag 2018,


Further reading

* http://www.db-artmag.com/en/63/feature/the-photographer-annegret-soltau/ * http://www.mutualart.com/OpenArticle/STRING-THEORIES--ANNEGRET-SOLTAU-S-TRANS/17B5B846D8D6DA00 * http://www.moca.org/exhibition/wack-art-and-the-feminist-revolution * http://www.strozzina.org/en/artists/annegret-soltau/?ex=1898 * http://ewva.ac.uk/annegret-soltau.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20190418093919/https://www.eyemazing.org/blog/wfzhzmlpwgdnjfpxpjxw2ftzkak43k * Annegret Soltau: I was on a quest: https://www.richardsaltoun.com/publications/41/ * WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution https://web.archive.org/web/20100707014753/http://www.moca.org/media/gal_guides/WACK!_Gallery_Guide.pdf * Cherie Silver finds out about the artist’s determined, experimental and investigative approach to art and identity:https://www.mayfairartweekend.com/interviews/richard-saltoun-annegret-soltau/ * http://ambitmagazine.co.uk/reviews/william-davie-on-annegret-soltau * https://www.injectionmag.com/post/annegret-soltau-interview * The Body as Material: https://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/annegret-soltau/ * https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/offensive-interview-with-annegret-soltau/5315 * Annegret Soltau: Ich Selbst (myself), English/German: https://www.richardsaltoun.com/publications/42/


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soltau, Annegret 1946 births Living people People from Lüneburg Photographers from Lower Saxony German women photographers 20th-century German women artists University of Fine Arts of Hamburg alumni Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni 20th-century women photographers