Nancy Spero

Between June 7 and August 25, 2019, Museum Folkwang will be presenting the first large-scale retrospective of Nancy Spero’s (1926–2009) work in Germany. The show will feature 75 pieces, most of them works on paper, as well as paintings and a full-room installation.

Throughout her life, this American artist engaged with existential aspects of the human condition. Spero thought of herself as a political artist who used her art to take a stand on contemporary social problems and political events. War and violence play a central role in her work, as do injustices in gender relations. The rigour of the content is accompanied by a remarkable variety of form. For six decades, Spero constantly developed new expressive means and groups of works that originated in the human figure. Female figures are her most important expressive motifs. She takes up traditional visual tropes and combines them in new ways. Many of Spero’s works have an unusual external form. She used long strips of paper that she would then paint, collage and print with her own figurative stamps. Ten years after Spero’s death, the exhibition at Museum Folkwang offers a comprehensive insight into the work of this fascinating artist, whose themes are as explosive as ever.

Following the show at Museum Folkwang, the exhibition will travel to Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Skärhamn, Sweden, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark, and Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway.

Funded by Terra Foundation for American Art.

A catalogue published by Edition Folkwang/Steidl will be available.

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Press contact
Anna Littmann, T +49 201 8845 160 / anna.littmann [​at​] museum-folkwang.essen.de