BURIED TOGETHER
Partner Silvia Bovenschen
Queer Places:
Alter Sankt-Matthäus-Kirchhof
Schöneberg, Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany
Sarah
Schumann (August 12, 1933 - July 3, 2019), a painter and draughtswoman, is considered an important representative of post-war modernism and deals with the significant concepts of "horror and beauty" in her figurative works and portraits of women.
The exhibition Lesbian Visions at the Schwules Museum from May 10 to August
20, 2018, brought into view artistic positions by queer FLT* (females,
lesbians, trans) from over 100 years and displays works by more than 30
artists across six generations, including
Sarah Schumann.
In the beginning, Schumann's work was inspired by Surrealism, later she developed a memorable visual language that characterizes her mysterious landscape paintings and portraits. Even the early "shock collages" of the 1950s reflect her childhood in the Second World War and her childhood experiences in the post-war period. Her poetic images capture the view of human existence and its surroundings. Her international travels in Europe, Russia, Africa and India are also reflected in the choice of motifs in her works.
Sarah Schumann was born in Berlin in 1933. Between 1960 and 1963 she lived and worked in London, where she became intensively acquainted with the art scene. Later she moved to Piedmont, Italy. Since 1968, the city of Berlin has once again been the centre of her life. She experienced the socio-political upheavals there and joined the feminist group "Brot + Rosen" in 1972. During this time, she created heroic portraits of women in her immediate environment. From 1974 to 1977, Schumann was co-organizer and curator of the important exhibition "Women Artists International 1877-1977". This legendary exhibition, which is accompanied by protests, presents important female artists of the 20th century for the first time in Germany, including Paula Modersohn-Becker, Frida Kahlo, Eva Hesse, Maria Lassnig, Mary Bauermeister, Ulrike Rosenbach and Diane Arbus. In the accompanying catalogue, she writes a text on Meret Oppenheim, based on an interview in Paris. In 1977 she was awarded a scholarship for the Villa Massimo in Rome. The life and work of Sarah Schumann was artistically honored by Harun Farocki and Michaela Melián and also immortalized in literature by her partner
Silvia Bovenschen in the book "Sarah's Law". The Städel Museum in Frankfurt counts Sarah Schumann among the 70 most important protagonists of the art scene in the FRG from 1960 onwards in the oral history project "Café Deutschland". Works by the artist can be found in the Berlinische Galerie, the Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Sarah Schumann passed away in Berlin in 2019.
Sarah Schumann (left) and Silvia Bovenschen
Sarah Schumann, Silvia. don't have an apartment, 1978, collage on paper, 50 × 68 cm, signed, inscribed, dated and titled verso: Sarah Schumann collage 1978 'keine Wohnung haben', frame
VAN HAM Art Estate has been in charge of Sarah Schumann's oeuvre since 2018, which includes paintings, collages, drawings and graphics. Since 2019, the written estate has been in the German Art Archive at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (GNM).
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