Annegret Soltau & Elvira Bach – Input / Output

Until recently, the world was a small place. Dubai, New York, Paris, London. A full calendar, day-to-day life on a tight schedule. And now, suddenly, the pages are blank. Gallerists turn inward. Everything seems new, unfamiliar, surprising, and sometimes frightening.

The world is turning at a different pace. New input, new output. New paths and possibilities open up through communication and exchange—not only in the fields of economy and computer science, but also in art and the art market. In Berlin and in Frankfurt, Alfred Kornfeld and Anita Beckers are exploring new paths in this newly expanded world.

For both gallerists, input and output signifies the exchange between artist and observer through the artwork, as well as new creative approaches developed in response to changing circumstances. Driven by constant curiosity and the search for what lies behind artworks, the two galleries reinvent themselves as new spaces of inspiring communication and exchange.

This process unfolds through encounters between artists from both galleries—a concentration of forces: different life paths, artistic genres, and positions. Uniting forces, creating synergies, opening new spaces.

Input and output. A new diversity, a new path. And suddenly, the small world is large again—in a different way: new, unfamiliar, surprising, and encouraging.

The collaboration begins with an exhibition of early works by Elvira Bach and Annegret Soltau in Berlin, at 68projects. The second cooperative project will take place in September at Galerie Anita Beckers in Frankfurt as part of The Frankfurt Art Experience: abstract colour reliefs by Liat Yossifor from Los Angeles will be shown alongside impasto oil paintings by Christopher Lehmpfuhl from Berlin.

This exhibition of early works by Elvira Bach and Annegret Soltau marks the beginning of the collaboration between Galerie Kornfeld and Galerie Anita Beckers. Curated by Christoph Breitwieser, Director of Museum Bensheim, it brings together important works by both artists from the 1970s and 1980s for the first time.

Bach’s expressive and impulsive paintings encounter Soltau’s sewn photographs and performances. Both artists have been influential figures since the 1970s, confronting viewers with defiant works of strong visual impact.

As an expressive painter, Elvira Bach was part of the Junge Wilde. Annegret Soltau, by contrast, works across media such as performance, graphic art, collage, photography, and video. What unites both artists is their exploration of the multilayered, complex, and ever-changing self—as women, artists, and mothers.

Bach’s paintings present women as tall, strong, erotic, and self-confident. They are self-determined and unconventional, taking up the space they need to unfold their personalities. Motherhood becomes an extension of the self, the child celebrated and revered.

Soltau literally sews her doubts, experiences, and physicality into her works. Her art intervenes surgically in conventional images and fixed definitions of the (female) body and identity.

What connects both artists is their determined search for identity as female artists within a male-dominated art world. Without taboos, they celebrate and suffer their physicality, sensuality, sexuality, and womanhood.

After its presentation in Berlin, the exhibition will be shown at Museum Bensheim from August 13 to September 20, 2020.

Elvira Bach (born 1951, Bad Neuenhain, Germany) studied with Hann Trier at the University of the Arts Berlin. After her participation in documenta 7 in 1982, she gained international recognition and is regarded as one of the most important German painters of her generation. Her works have been exhibited worldwide, including at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), Museum Groningen, Haus der Kunst (Munich), Städel Museum (Frankfurt), and the Museum in Landerneau (France).

Annegret Soltau (born 1946, Lüneburg, Germany) studied at the University of the Arts Hamburg and later at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She received numerous grants and awards, including a fellowship at Villa Massimo in Rome (1984). Her works have been shown internationally, including in WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution (MOCA Los Angeles), PS1 New York, Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington), MUMOK Vienna, Stavanger Art Museum, and ZKM Karlsruhe.