—
Louise Stomps. Contours of the Inner Self
The Edwin Scharff Museum is dedicating a comprehensive solo exhibition to the sculptor and printmaker Louise Stomps. For the first time in southern Germany, approximately 35 sculptures in plaster, stone, and wood, as well as series of prints spanning her entire creative career from the late 1920s through the 1980s, are being presented. The exhibition traces Stomps’ evolution from figurative representation to abstract forms. Throughout, the human figure remains the artist’s essential point of reference. Wood, with its distinctive grain, became her most important material.
Louise Stomps (1900–1988) did not begin studying sculpture until she was 27, attending Milly Steger’s sculpture class as well as Prof. Johannes Röttger’s evening class at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. During the Nazi era, which she opposed, her opportunities to exhibit were restricted. In the immediate postwar period, she was once again able to show her work in exhibitions, including at the art gallery of her patron Hanna Bekker vom Rath (Frankfurt).
In 1960, the artist moved to Upper Bavaria, where she devoted herself to her art in seclusion at a watermill. Some of her works bear mythological titles and explore existential themes such as grief, but also encounter and liberation. Her works from this period reveal her search for an expression of inner states and the connection between nature and humanity.
With the support of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Cologne.
We thank our lenders!