Elisabeth von Samsonow

For the first time, this retrospective brings together nearly five decades of the artistic oeuvre of the German-Austrian artist and philosopher Elisabeth von Samsonow (b. 1956). Including many newly exhibited works, it presents the breadth of her practice alongside the philosophical thinking that has developed with it. Working across sculpture, painting, drawing, performance, and writing, and extending her practice into collective projects, Samsonow interweaves art, philosophy, feminist thought, pedagogy, and, increasingly, ecological engagement in a distinctive, vivid artistic language. 

Sculptures as hybrid bodies
Since Samsonow began working in wood in 1990, sculpture has been central to her practice. Carved from entire tree trunks, these works are life-size or larger; their painted surfaces broaden the sculptural form into the realm of painting. Samsonow’s sculptural vocabulary is closely connected to her philosophical one. It brings together female figures from mythology with recurring motifs such as the Girl, the Horse, the Ponygirl, and the Pretzel. Shaped by unexpected transformations, at times infused with subtle wit, human, animal, and plant bodies merge. More recently, the She-Eagle has assumed a prominent role, appearing both as a symbolic figure and as a real animal.

Challenging the idea of sculpture as static, Samsonow’s sculptural works suggest that they might exceed their apparent stillness: they are mounted on wheels, fitted with strings that resonate when played, or wired to emit light. In her performative works, Samsonow activates the sculptures through movement or by playing their strings, staging interactions between herself and the figures, placing her own body into direct relation with them.

Gaia as living archive
Samsonow approaches the earth as a living, interconnected system and as a carrier of history and collective memory. Over the past decade, her practice has increasingly extended beyond the studio into rural landscapes through ecological and cultural projects in Lower Austria. For her, art becomes a way of inhabiting the world and engaging with our surroundings and communities through care.

With Goddesses’ Land—initiated in 2020 through the collective purchase of four hectares of land with other cultural workers—Samsonow responds to a landscape shaped by intensive agriculture and increasingly depleted soil. The site lies near places where prehistoric female figurines have been discovered in layers of loess, the region’s fine, wind-blown earth, which has become a defining material and conceptual presence in her work. Through painting, drawing, performative photography, and writing, Samsonow connects with this terrain, asking: What does this land mean? What does it say? And what relationships connect us to it? The landscape becomes a partner in dialogue—something to listen to and respond to.

Reflecting the dialogical and collective character of Samsonow’s practice, as well as her conviction that creativity can shape society, a specially designed open atelier invites visitors to respond creatively to the exhibition and explore its ideas further.

In dialogue
A defining element of the retrospective is a series of ten dialogues between works by Samsonow and masterpieces from the Heidi Horten Collection—including by Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Alexander Calder, Francesco Clemente, Erich Heckel, Damien Hirst, Alexej von Jawlensky, Egon Schiele, and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller—as well as the prehistoric Idol of Immendorf, on loan to the exhibition. Through formal and thematic resonances, these encounters open new readings of both Samsonow’s work and the collection, revealing connections across eras, ideas, and materials.

First comprehensive monograph
The first extensive monograph to survey Samsonow’s oeuvre across its full chronological span, the catalog brings together newly commissioned essays by the curators and invited scholars—including Suzana Milevska, Joanna Warsza, Alena J. Williams, and Christine Neugebauer-Maresch—alongside republished texts, manifestos, and a new contribution by the artist. Across four chapters, the publication situates Samsonow’s practice within broader art historical, philosophical, and feminist discourses. 

Edited by Verena Kaspar-Eisert, Hana O. O. Haas and Rolf H. Johannsen for the Heidi Horten Collection, with essays by the editors and Suzana Milevska, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Joanna Warsza, Alena Williams. Published by VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst GmbH, ISBN 978-3-99153-282-8.

The exhibition, the first large-scale retrospective under the new directorship of Verena Kaspar-Eisert at the Heidi Horten Collection, is curated by Hana O. O. Haas and Rolf H. Johannsen.