Press release • September 2022
Franciska Clausen, Cirkler og vertikaler, 1930, Statens Museum for Kunst, Deponering fra Kunstmuseet Brundlund Slot, Museum Sønderjylland og Fonden Franciska Clausens Samlinger
Exhibiting paintings, sketches, photographs, archival material and revealing new research, Franciska Clausen: Every Facet illuminates Clausen's wide-ranging approach to art and her bold experimentation with different styles and themes. The exhibition demonstrates the way Clausen also manifested multiple artist identities that unfolded simultaneously.
“We are very proud to present this special exhibition that reveals more of Franciska Clausen’s oeuvre. She is a unique Danish artist who can be described as Denmark's first international avant-gardist. The exhibition at ARoS shows Clausen's many facets, her compositional skills, and distinctive, experimental aesthetic, which make her relevant to a new and contemporary audience” - Museum Director Rebecca Matthews, ARoS.
Franciska Clausen: Every Facet is part of the ARoS on-going series of exhibitions focused upon iconic Danish artists from the beginning of the 20th century. It has been organised in collaboration with the exhibition's art consultant Dr Inge Lise Mogensen Bech. The exhibition at ARoS is organised by lead curator Maria Kappel Blegvad.
“The exhibition emphasizes Clausen as a "painter of versatility" who had the courage to go her own way despite resistance from a male-dominated art world, especially on Danish soil. Her extensive experimentation is on show in this expansive exhibition view. Today, Clausen has received the recognition she deserves, but aspects of her late work, particularly her portraiture, have long been underexposed. We remedy this by showing previously unknown works and hidden aspects of Clausen's artistic approach,"- lead curator Maria Kappel Blegvad, ARoS.
The painter of versatility
The exhibition works with seven themes: the avant-garde, the portrait painter, the modernist, the machine aestheticist, the surrealist, the designer and the poster artist Franciska Clausen. The different themes highlight the fact that there was not just one Franciska Clausen, but many versions of the same artist soul, who allowed herself to unfold simultaneously through her art.
About Franciska Clausen
Clausen (1899 - 1986) described herself as an ‘eye person’, who insisted on painting from different theories and genres. With her keen aesthetic eye, she transformed figurative elements as well as geometric shapes and colours into visually arresting and well-composed symphonies of images. Often before well-known male artists she places herself centrally among the trend-setting avant-garde artists of the 1920s and 1930s; among them László Moholy-Nagy, Alexander Archipenko and especially Fernand Léger with whom, alongside their working relationship, she had a long-term love affair. In 1929-30 she was a member of the artists' group Cercle et Carré, along with Piet Mondrian and Robert and Sonia Delaunay, among others. Her artistic network and uncompromising exploration of art's abstract formal language are therefore unique in a Danish context.
Biography
Clausen was born and raised in Aabenraa (when the town was German). She is trained at Die Grossherzogliche sächsische Hochschule für bildende Kunst in Weimar, Germany (1916-17), at the Women's Academy in Munich (1918-19), at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark (1920-21) and under Hans Hofmann at the Hofmann Schule Fur Moderne Kunst in Munich (1921-22). She then sought private tuition with László Moholy-Nagy in Berlin (Sept-Dec 1922), with Alexander Archipenko in Berlin in 1923 and with Fernand Léger in Paris (1924-25).
The exhibition has been made possible with the support of:
Press photos:
Press photos can be downloaded free of charge by indicating the name of the photographer.
For further information:
Lead curator:
Maria Kappel Blegvad: mkb@aros.dk / 2888 4774
Presse and Communication Department:
presse@aros.dk / 0045 2888 4464