Current exhibition
Irma Stern. A Modern Artist between Berlin and Cape Town
2. November 2025
The expressionist Irma Stern (1894–1966) is considered one of the most important representatives of modern art in South Africa. In Germany, however, her art is hardly known. This was once different: growing up between the two countries, she studied painting in Weimar and Berlin. In the 1920s, the capital’s most important galleries exhibited her expressive portraits and colorful landscapes. She was a founding member of the Novembergruppe and a close friend of the Brücke artist Max Pechstein.With the rise of the Nazis, Stern’s career in Germany came to an abrupt end: as a Jew, she was persecuted and her expressionist works were denounced as “degenerate.”
Stern’s work is complex and marked by an indissoluble historical ambivalence: as a woman, she had to assert herself in a male-dominated art world. As a Jew, she experienced exclusion and antisemitism. At the same time, as a white artist, she benefited from the racist social structures of colonialism and the apartheid system and presented herself as an “expert” on Black cultures. The Brücke-Museum is dedicating the first solo museum exhibition in her former home city of Berlin to this important artist of global modernism.
Over 40 paintings, drawings, and watercolors from international collections, primarily South African, enter into dialogue with works by the Brücke artists and invite visitors to (re)discover Irma Stern. A site-specific intervention by South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga reflects on Stern’s life and work from a queer Black perspective.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Irma Stern, edited by Lisa Hörstmann and Lisa Marei Schmidt for the Brücke-Museum, with contributions by Irene Below, LaNitra M. Berger, Lisa Hörstmann, Gcotyelwa Mashiqa, Athi-Patra Ruga and Lisa Marei Schmidt, Hirmer Verlag, 208 pages, museum edition 39 euros
Artists
Programme
- Opening Day: Irma Stern12 Jul
- Public Tour20 Jul
- Curator's Tour with Valentina Bay25 Jul
- Stretching Sessions (DE/EN/ES)26 Jul
- Public Tour27 Jul
- Curator's Tour with Valentina Bay1 Aug
- Public Tour3 Aug
- Public Tour in English 3 Aug
- Public Tour10 Aug
- Stretching Sessions (DE/EN/ES)16 Aug
- Public Tour17 Aug
- Public Tour24 Aug
- Roll the Camera: From Idea to Mini Feature Film 28 Aug
- Public Tour31 Aug
- Public Tour in English 31 Aug
- Public Tour7 Sep
- Curator's Tour with Lisa Marei Schmidt13 Sep
- Public Tour14 Sep
- Public Tour in English14 Sep
- Public Tour21 Sep
- Public Tour in English 21 Sep
- Public Tour28 Sep
- Public Tour5 Oct
- Public Tour in English 5 Oct
- Curator's Tour with Lisa Hörstmann11 Oct
- Stretching Sessions (DE/EN/ES)11 Oct
- Public Tour12 Oct
- Curator's Tour with Lisa Hörstmann17 Oct
- Public Tour19 Oct
- Public Tour in English19 Oct
- Public Tour26 Oct
- Public Tour in English26 Oct
- Public Tour2 Nov
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Publications

Irma Stern
Catalogue
Edited by: Lisa Hörstmann and Lisa Marei Schmidt for Brücke-Museum
Texts: Valentina Bay, Irene Below, LaNitra M. Berger, Lisa Hörstmann, Gcotyelwa Mashiqa, Athi-Patra Ruga and Lisa Marei Schmidt
Hirmer Verlag
208 pages
German / English
ISBN: 978-3-7774-4529-8
45 €
Pulished April 2025
Staff
Lisa Marei Schmidt, Curator
Lisa Hörstmann, Co-Curator
Valentina Bay, Assistant Curator and Project Management
Daniela Bystron, Curator of Outreach
Ximena Gutiérrez Toro, Curatorial Assistant of Outreach
Stoodio Santiago da Silva, Exhibition Design
Dr. Pegah Byroum-Wand, Coordination, moderation, and scientific mentoring Nicht einfach (not easy)