Renate Bertlmann

The first comprehensive monograph of the acclaimed Austrian artist Renate Bertlmann presents a sweeping survey of her oeuvre.

The artist Renate Bertlmann, who lives and works in Vienna, is a preeminent representative of the Feminist Avant-Garde. This book presents 250 illustrations that unfold a panorama of a creative output spanning over five decades. The artist’s inspiration for her work is "amo ergo sum" (I love therefore I am). Five international writers discuss the themes of "Pornography," "Irony," and "Utopia" in Bertlmann’s oeuvre. In her work, she deftly arranges clashes between opposites: sexual pleasure and asceticism, female and male, soft and hard, attraction and repulsion. Ambivalent feelings between tenderness and aggression come to the fore, fueling Bertlmann’s subversive politics. An in-depth interview, a filmography, and a chronological list of her performances round out this book compiled by SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection in Vienna, an outstanding art collection focused on the Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s. Berthold Ecker sketches the evolution of the motif of the bride; Jessica Morgan interprets Renate Bertlmann’s work in light of Freudian psychoanalysis; an interview by Gabriele Schor addresses the affinities between performance art and staged photography; Abigail Solomon-Godeau situates Bertlmann’s work in the history of feminism; and Katharina Sykora explores the subject of skin and its capacity for separation as well as connection.