Die Un-Sichtbarkeiten – Wie queer sind die ‘Alten Meister’?

Art history has long proven that there have been outstanding female Old Masters since the Renaissance at the latest. Names such as Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelika Kaufmann and Anna Dorothea Therbusch bear witness to this. However, this is hardly reflected in many collections - including in Osnabrück. The exhibition "ganz schön - von gestern" makes this gap visible and shows the work of a "female master" as a surprise work in the exhibition "ganz schön - von gestern".

Lisa Hecht and Katrin Lazaruk will address the question of how queer and non-male artists, works and socio-cultural phenomena can be made visible in art history in a discussion on 8 March at 6 pm in the Museumsquartier Osnabrück. What processes have led to them being barely noticed for centuries? Can historical works of art be reinterpreted from a queer-feminist perspective? Which concepts of identity are relevant here, and how visible is queer-feminist art today?

Hecht and Lazaruk approach these questions from art historical and contemporary artistic perspectives. They analyze which powerful processes led to the invisibilization of certain identities in art and the associated apparent voids and which possibilities of interpretation are possible to fill these voids. They will be accompanied by Adriana Martins Mota. Admission to this event is free.

Lisa Hecht works as a research assistant at the Institute of Art History at the Philipps University of Marburg. Her habilitation project deals with questions of visibility and agency in relation to the concept of diversity in the visual arts of the pre-modern era. She also conducts research in the field of affect studies in relation to boredom as a phenomenon in images of the late early modern period. 

Katrin Lazaruk works with a feminist approach and dedicates her art and curatorial practice to the examination of gender issues as well as the visibility of female artists and their promotion. In 2024, she curated the exhibition "know her name", which exclusively presented works by women.

Adriana Martins Mota works as a curator and art and cultural mediator and deals in particular with feminist discourses in her work. Her focus is on diversity, participation, inclusion and sustainability. She is currently working on her doctorate at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen on feminist iconography in female self-portraits.

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