Siri Derkert : Paris

Siri Derkert (1888–1973), one of the few prominent female artists in Swedish art history, is known for her highly personal expressionist style and for her monumental public commissions, often of a political nature. Many of her works explore her ardent interest in women’s liberation as well as environmental issues, fields in which she was a forerunner and raised issues still relevant today. 

 

Siri Derkert's evolution from an elegant contemporary modernism in the 1910s to the pronounced political public art she became famous for in the 1960s, is a testament to the various ways an artist can relate to the private and the political.

 

Siri Derkert’s life and work spanned the greater part of the 20th century – a period of great societal and cultural change, which was reflected in Derkert's artistic development, particularly in terms of her subject matter, technique and expression. The presentation at Andréhn-Schiptjenko, marking the gallery’s first Paris exhibition of the artist’s work, highlights a selection of works from each stage of her multifaceted artistic career, from watercolours from her years in Copenhagen 1918-1919, through to her more political work of the late 1960s. This encompasses cubism, intense portraiture, collage, bronze sculpture and material experiments in concrete and metal - some of which are rarely seen works from one of the most important modernist artists in Sweden. Derkert's strong advocacy for women's rights, environmental protection and peace, as well as her experimental approach to the material, make her work as relevant as ever.

 

After attending Caleb Althin's School of Painting in Stockholm, she moved to Paris in 1913 to study at the Académie Colarossi and Académie de la Grande Chaumière developing a more cubist-orientated style of painting. At this time, Derkert was also working as a fashion illustrator and was an early adopter of the creative and expressive potential of fashion.

 

During the 1920s and 30s, Derkert experimented and developed her painting, often drawing inspiration from everyday life and a small circle of family members, friends and colleagues. The exhibition features expressive oil paintings such as Sara in the Window (1924) and brisk drawings of Derkert’s own children and their friends at Simpnäs, more or less dissolved figures in an interplay of bold contours and dynamic shapes. As a single mother of three, caring for her children while pursuing an artistic career were likely decisive factors in Derkert’s development of political opinion. Her portraits of children became a kind of weapon in her war against the patriarchy as well as a political statement as in the painting The servant children at Hersbyholm (1932-34).