Mis(s)treated More than your Muse!   22.02. – 03.08.2025

“Why have there been no great women artists?” This provocative question was posed by US art historian Linda Nochlin in 1971, laying the foundation for feminist art history. In her essay, she was one of the first to examine how women artists have been structurally discriminated against and excluded from exhibitions and museums. One of the consequences of this has been that women have long been popular subjects, but rarely figured as artists. Though the situation has improved somewhat over the past 54 years – thanks to ongoing struggles for women’s rights, which also extend into the cultural sector – works by women artists are still underrepresented in museums, including the Kunsthalle Bremen.

In the exhibition “Mis(s)treated”, the New Perceptions team of young curators, together with curators from the Kunsthalle, is therefore exploring for the first time the representation of female positions in the museum. In doing so, it draws attention to feminist perspectives that are rarely included in the permanent exhibition. Works from the collection of the Kunsthalle – many of which have rarely or never been displayed – are presented alongside loans from contemporary women artists, filling in some of the gaps and offering previously missing perspectives.

The exhibition explores how since the 19th century women artists have gradually claimed their space, breaking free from male-dominated art history and enriching both the art world and societal debates with their unique perspectives. Themes such as the body, identity, gender roles, care work and sexualized violence, which might otherwise have been mostly ignored, are brought to the forefront.

With works by: Christa Baumgärtel, Vivien Bendlin, Charlotte Berend-Corinth, Mary Cassatt, Elif Çelik, Talia Chetrit, Camille Claudel, VALIE EXPORT, Nan Goldin, Eva Gonzalès, Hannah Höch, Käthe Kollwitz, Marie Laurencin, Margit Manz, MATERNAL FANTASIES, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter, Shirin Neshat, Fatma Özay, Yoko Ono, Natalie Paneng, Clara Rilke-Westhoff, Ulrike Rosenbach, Razan Sabbagh, Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld, Ngozi Ajah Schommers, Cindy Sherman, Floria Sigismondi, Taryn Simon, Sibylle Springer, Gabriele Stötzer, Hana Usui, Suzanne Valadon, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Carrie Mae Weems

Curators: New Perceptions and Jessica Fritz
Project Coordination New Perceptions: Dina Koper
New Perceptions are: Ediz Altunöz, Stella Beßlich, Marleen Dalinghaus, Musa Kinteh, Noemi Kpofonde, Mia Kuntze, Emily Kunusch, Seda Kurtoglu, Charlotte Lewe, Eva Natenzan, Lenja Potthast, Jakob Reipschläger, Nathan Rubbe

(Fig. exhibition overview: Ngozi Ajah Schommers, Self-Portrait (the trim), 2021, © Ngozi Ajah Schommers, photo: Tobias Hübel | Fig. top of page: Ulrike Rosenbach, Reflexionen über die Geburt der Venus (1976/78), 2005, video still on laserchromeprint, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024)