Siri Derkert : Paris

24 May - 26 July 2025
Overview
Siri Derkert, Sara i fönstret, 1924, Oil on canvas mounted on canvas, 104 x 72 cm.
Siri Derkert, Sara i fönstret, 1924, Oil on canvas mounted on canvas, 104 x 72 cm.
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.
 
Milestones in the life and career of Siri Derkert
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).
 
It was not until the 1940s that Derkert had her real breakthrough on the art scene, which occurred simultaneously with her socio-political commitment to peace and equality increasing after WWII. Her membership in the Swedish Women's Leftist Association and annual visits to the Fogelstad Women's Civic School during 1943-54 heavily impacted this creative development. At Fogelstad, she met women involved in the early suffrage movement and Derkert made many works portraying them speaking and teaching, including author Elin Wägner and labour inspector and politician Kerstin Hesselgren. The women attending this school were not only educated in social issues, but also the arts, and Derkert likewise depicts the Fogelstad Choir under the direction of organist and choirmaster Elsa Stenhammar. These works show the women merging into one body as a symbol of a close-knit female collective. The women at Fogelstad and the political issues raised there became important elements in Derkert's public works.
 

In the 1960s, Derkert also experimented with non-traditional materials. The portraits she used to paint on canvas or draw on paper morphed into works of concrete and metal. In the exhibition, strong examples of this multidisciplinary period are presented with two portraits of Pontus Hultén, Swedish curator and the first director of the Musée national d'art moderne at the Centre Pompidou. Derkert’s main interest in these portraits is both private and political in nature, conveying the inner selves of those depicted and commitment to various causes but with less emphasis on their physical appearance.

 

The process that had now begun lead to Derkert’s late, public commissioned works such as The Woman Pillar at T-centralen (1956-8) and the monumental work Carvings in Natural Concrete at Östermalmstorg’s metro station (1961-5) – arguably one of the most central works of modern Swedish art and a worthy manifestation for peace, equality and justice. The work, with its explicit political message, provoked strong reactions in the daily press at the time and was considered highly controversial. The piece is a bold and visionary fusion of text and image, featuring excerpts from La Marseillaise and The Internationale, the word “peace” rendered in 50 languages, and tributes to influential women including Sappho, Hypatia, Virginia Woolf, and Simone de Beauvoir. Its expressive visual style, reminiscent of graffiti, continues to resonate with modern audiences

 

The Woman Pillar depicts numerous symbolic references, including women at work such as oarswomen, bricklayers, conductresses and typists, and highlights women's work as an essential part of their empowerment and contribution to the ongoing struggle for democratic rights. Derkert saw that part of the problem for women was the lack of role models, and this was a way of balancing the representation and visibility of contemporary women in the public sphere.

 

Siri Derkert (1888-1973) participated in the Venice Biennale in 1962, as the first Swedish representative at the newly opened Nordic Pavilion. The same year, she was shown in an extensive retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Her work has been shown in two retrospectives at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (1960 and 2011). Derkert's work is included in many Swedish museum collections, including the National Museum, Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Malmö Art Museum, Gothenburg Art Museum, Skövde Art Museum and Museum of Artistic Process and Public Art, Lund, but also The British Museum, London.

 

Installation Views
Works
Back to Current exhibitions