Anna-Carola Krausse – författare

Comprehensive view and new research on the fascinating painter of New Objectivity. The German-Swedish painter Lotte Laserstein (1898-1993) is one of the most exciting rediscoveries of recent years. The richly illustrated book with essays on Laserstein’s production in Berlin and her reception in Sweden as well as unpublished documentary material can enrich the existing knowledge of Laserstein’s life and work. Laserstein’s current reputation as a great realist has assigned her an undisputed place in the 20th-century art history. Striking portraits, self-portraits and sensual nudes demonstrate her synthesis of traditional painting style and modern subject matter in the Berlin period.

Laserstein’s current reputation as a great realist has assigned her an undisputed place in the 20th-century art history. Striking portraits, self-portraits and sensual nudes demonstrate her synthesis of traditional painting style and modern subject matter in the Berlin period.

How do artists’ identities and the histories of their families influence their art? Where might a creative affinity sustained by a legacy of trauma take an artist? Lotte Laserstein (1898–1993) and Emmanuel Bornstein (b. 1986) are connected by such a bond, tied by Bornstein’s grandmother, a Resistance fighter and, like Lotte Laserstein, a Jew who survived the Nazis. Bornstein discovered Laserstein’s works by coincidence and without knowing of this connection, and he was fascinated right away: “It was actually what I’d been trying to make for years.There are in fact parallels between their oeuvres - both feature people who are waiting and flower bouquets, and a melancholy aspect and a subtle menace can be felt in both. Yet there are also discrepancies, and the dialogue between their works would be far less inspiring without them: Bornstein’s omnipresent toxic cadmium, which contrasts with Laserstein’s muted tones; the paint application; the brushwork. What the artists have in common, in any case, is that Sweden became their abode in times of danger and painting, their only true home. This catalogue celebrates their creative homecoming.