The Kunsthalle Rostock is dedicating its current exhibition to the artist Susanne Kandt-Horn (1914–1996) and is shedding light on female artistic positions in the GDR. Kandt-Horn had an extraordinary talent for artistically questioning and redefining socially moulded images of femininity. While her works were often rejected at the beginning of her career, she gained increasing public recognition from the 1970s onwards. The exhibition focuses not only on the stylistic development of the painter and graphic artist, but also on the special perception and categorisation of female art in the male-dominated art landscape of the GDR.
Kandt-Horn’s large-format paintings, which focus on the monumental and sublime, are impressive. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she rarely worked in small formats, preferring canvases at least one metre in size and often in several parts — a choice of format that was usually reserved for male artists at the time. Although her pictorial worlds revolve around female motifs, she consciously eludes the usual labelling and stereotypes of so-called “women’s art”. Against the backdrop of current discussions about feminism and gender identities, the exhibition encourages reflection on her image of women and the body and invites the public to enter into an open discourse with the works. The supporting programme provides space for pluralistic debates and deepens the discussion with a diverse public.
