Valentine (1966)

After a first solo show in 2009 the young and innovative gallery Broadway 1602 created in 2005 by German curator and art critic Anke Kempkes presents this spring and summer 2012 a brand new show on the Belgian woman Pop Artist Evelyne Axell. In the last decade the importance and the very subtle and somehow provocative input of the very few female artists in the Anglo-Saxon male dominated world of Pop Art became an increasing reality and is now knowing a real reconnaissance in museums and art galleries.

Axell’s works figured in the first exhibition on female Pop Art “Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968″ (Brooklyn Museum, NY, and University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, 2010) and featured in its European counterpart “Power Up, Female Pop Art” (Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, and Bietigheim-Bissingen Städtische Galerie, Germany, 2011) while three solo exhibitions “Evelyne Axell: Contestatory Images”, Wiels, Brussels, Belgium, “La Terre est ronde”, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany and “Axelleration”, Retrospective, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany, 2011 gave the European public a chance to rediscover her paintings.

La machine érotique or Conception du Mec Art (1964)

The first exhibition in New York in 2009 presented mainly the last works created by Evelyne Axell – essentially the 1970 – 1972 period – and enamel on Plexiglas technique. This new show spans across 8 years of intense creativity and many different techniques including oil on canvas, collage, drawing and even “objects-jacking”.

THE GREAT JOURNEY INTO SPACE shows the artist’s interest in female space travel as well as the dimension of allegorical space in her work. The sixties were marked by male exclusive symbols such as automobile and space travel. The first theme had already been widely depicted by Axell in her “Erotomobiles” series of paintings. The next step was space travel.

At the time only one woman had ever been into space; Valentina Terechkova, the youngest Russian cosmonaut and still today the only woman to have travelled alone in space. An uttermost loneliness that Axell also resented and expressed in the two 1965 paintings “Seule, une femme” (Alone, a woman) and “Une femme, seule” (A lonely woman) as her TV director husband had left for a long time in the Soviet Union to make a documentary series, including an episode on … Valentina Terechkova!

So in 1966 she created one of the most singular painting/assemblage, using a toy astronaut helmet from her son, representing a woman’s silhouette stripped by a zipper, as an homage to the first woman astronaut and called it “Valentine”.

In 1969 Axell organized a “Happening” at Foncke Gallery in Ghent, Belgium, bringing into the crowd a young woman wearing nothing but an astronaut helmet, which disguised her identity (being the wife of a well known collector who had mingled before with the audience). Against the background of a languorous music Axell then dressed her model like a reversed striptease. Broadway 1602 presents a number of photographs of this exceptional event.

The gallery also made a selection of drawings and preparatory works rarely shown previously and is presenting for the first time in New York some of the early works such as “La machine érotique ou Conception du Mec Art” (1964), “La conductrice et son double ou Les DS” (1965) or the almost life-sized transparency work in Clartex “La cloture ou La cloison” (1967).

La cloture or La cloison (1967)

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Frieze Art Fair – London

At the Frieze Art Fair Evelyne Axell’s works were presented by Broadway 1602 Gallery.

Broadway 1602 Gallery
1181 Broadway, Floor 3
New York, NY 10001
USA

Photo: Broadway 1602

FIAC – Paris

At the FIAC Evelyne Axell’s works were presented by Natalie Seroussi Gallery.

Galerie Natalie Seroussi
34 rue de Seine,
F-75006 Paris
France

Photo: Galerie Natalie Seroussi

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Power Up

After the great success of the “Power Up, Female Pop Art” exhibition in Vienna it is now in Germany, at the Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen that a slightly reduced version of the first European exhibition on women in Pop Art is shown this summer.

Curated by Angela Stief the exhibition shows works by Evelyne Axell, Sister Corita, Christa Dichgans, Rosalyn Drexler, Jann Haworth, Dorothy Iannone, Kiki Kogelnik, Marisol and Niki de Saint Phalle. The show aims at the reinterpretation of an art movement that until today has primarily been associated with male protagonists. Plastic, loud colours, reduced forms, and graphic contours – the nine women artists’ works on display resemble those of their male colleagues in many respects. Whereas their works appeal to the taste of the masses, these artists, as pioneers of Feminism, have remained belligerent and critical.

Portrait Fragmenté

Important works by Evelyne Axell, such as Ice Cream 1, Portrait Fragmenté, Valentine, Le mur du son, Les couchettes and others are on display in this show that will last until October 9, 2011. The catalogue of the exhibition (English and German editions available – 288 pages) is available at the Städtische Galerie.

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Le peintre en extase

After the exhibitions at the WIELS in Brussels and The Kunstverein in Hamburg it is now the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach that presents this summer a wide comprehensive retrospective show of Evelyne Axell’s works; the largest exhibition ever to be held outside Belgium.

More than sixty works are shown covering the entire creative period of Evelyne Axell from 1964 till 1972 including the different techniques and styles she used, from oil on canvas to enamel on Plexiglas. This show also includes some special objects revisited by the artist as well as a large number of drawings, paintings projects and yet unseen photos of herself that she used as model for her creations.

Many private collectors and museums accepted to lend works that have not been seen by the public for many years.

Catalogue's cover

A catalogue of 112 pages containing more than a hundred illustrations is published jointly by the Museum Abteiberg (Germany) and Lannoo Publishers (Belgium). This book in both German and English contains texts by Susanne Titz (curator of the exhibition), Liesbeth Decan (art historian, KULeuven) and a biography written by Jean Antoine and edited by Katharina Hohenhörst and Susanne Titz.

Museum Abteiberg 01

Museum Abteiberg 02

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Evelyne Axell (1935-1972) was an actress and newsreader, an icon in the French-speaking world; for many, her beauty made her a sex symbol. But in 1963 she brought her film and television career to an end, reversing roles to become a painter. A key figure in Belgian pop art, she is among the artists whose work is just emerging from the shadow cast by male pop heroes for reassessment, for instance in the exhibitions “Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958—1968″ at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery of the University of the Arts, Philadelphia last winter or “Power Up—Female Pop Art” at the Kunsthalle in Vienna, as well in recent publications.

Axell experimented with various contemporary materials, combining plexiglas with enamel, with synthetic fur, foils, etc. to create substantively and visually seductive pictures. Her unusual material aesthetics combines mass-produced materials previously in advertising and industry rather than in the arts, which to some extent required considerable manual crafting. Axell used half-transparent plexiglas, painting sometimes on the front and sometimes on the reverse side in staggered compositions producing an interplay of transparent and opaque surfaces.

Evelyne Axell exhibition, La Terre est ronde, 2011

The principal figures are usually women, often nude and not infrequently
representing the artist―sometimes as a direct self-portrait, sometimes indirectly, where she posed for photos that provided the basis for her paintings. Her art thus revolves around her own person and the image of woman, and lays claim to an impetus for liberation. The self-chosen nudity affirms the pinup, rendering it a positive ex-pression of female sexuality and self-determination.

This is also the theme of the exhibition at the Kunstverein Hamburg, which shows a selection of later works from her very brief artistic career, which began in about 1964 and ended with her accidental death in 1972. Influenced by the 1960s and the social and political events of that period, her works penetrate taboo zones, compensating a new freedom that escapes all constraints imposed by the role of home-maker and by the stylisation of woman as the object of male desire.

As an institution for contemporary art, it is the task of the Kunstverein not only to show young art but also to place current art in its historical context, particularly in cases where what we consider an important position has long been neglected by general art historiography. For her time, Axell treated materials with remarkable freedom and had addressed feminist topics even before the advent of feminism. In times when the self-image is determined externally by advertising and other medial representations, her policy of self preoccupation is of enduring relevance.

Evelyne Axell, Ice Cream (blue version), 1967

The exhibition has been taken over from the WIELS (Brussels) and will later be shown in the context of a comprehensive presentation at the Museum Abteiberg (Mönchengladbach).

Press review (pdf – German and Spanish):

- Der Spiegel
- Die Welt
- Art, Das Kunstmagazin
- El Mundo

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Thanks to Dirk Snauwaert, director of the Wiels Brussels, there will be two solo exhibitions in addition to the “Power Up – Female Pop Art” show in Germany.

The first one is a solo exhibition at the Kunstverein in Hamburg from April 8 till June 12, 2011. This exhibition will include most of the works shown in Brussels at the Wiels.

In the summer the Abtelberg Museum in Mönchengladbach will present a large Evelyne Axell solo exhibition from July 3 till October 3, 2011. This exhibition will include the works shown in Brussels and Hamburg as well as many other works.

Städtisches Museum Abteiberg
Abteistr. 27
41061 Mönchengladbach

Telefon: +49 – (0) 2161 – 252637
Telefax: +49 – (0) 2161 – 252659
www.museum-abteiberg.de

Almost in the same period the “Power Up – Female Pop Art” show will move from Vienna to Bietigheim-Bissingen Städtische Galerie from July 23 till October 9, 2011.

This exhibition will include a number of Evelyne Axell’s works.

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Due to the success of the exhibition the Kunsthalle Wien is extending “Power Up – Female Pop Art” until March 10, 2011.

Kunsthalle Wien - Power Up

Photos Kunsthalle Wien

Exhibition main hall

Valentine (back right)

"Le mur du son"

The catalogue of the exhibition (English and German editions available – 288 pages) is available in most bookshops or can be ordered from Dumont online store.

Catalogue "Power Up" Cover

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Last preparations

Dirk Snauwaert - curator

Philippe Axell (son of Evelyne Axell) and Dirk Snauwaert (curator)

The triptych "Le joli mois de mai"

Photos by Els Meyns and Christine Bertrand.

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La pilote

While in recent years works by Evelyne Axell were mainly presented in private galleries, the fall of 2010 promises to be particularly rich in solo and group exhibitions in the public high places of modern and contemporary art on both sides of the Atlantic .

After Philadelphia in early 2010 now the Big Apple will host the group exhibition “Seductive Subversion Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968″ at the Brooklyn Museum from October 15, 2010 to January 9, 2011. Two artworks will complement the presence of Evelyne Axell in NYC; “Vicious Circle Red” (1968) and “The Rape of Ingres by Axell” (1968), which was exhibited in 2009 at the Musée Ingres in Montauban (France), on the occasion of the exhibition “Ingres et les modernes”.

Then it will be in Brussels – the city where she created her work – that a solo exhibition will be devoted to her at the WIELS (Brussels Centre for Contemporary Art) from October, 22 2010 to January 16, 2011. “Evelyne Axell: Images Contestataires” will present a dozen works “involved” in the protest movements of the 60s, including the magnificent and gigantic triptych “Le joli mois de mai” that will be exceptionally loaned by the Ostend Museum (Kunstmuseum aan Zee).

Finally it’s Vienna  which will honour Evelyne Axell in conjunction with the group exhibition “Power Up – Female Pop Art” from November 5, 2010 to February 20, 2011 at the Kunsthalle Wien. No fewer than fifteen Axell works representing all periods and inspirations from 1964-1971 will be presented at this first major European exhibition on Women in Pop Art.

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Power Up poster - Ice Cream 1 - Evelyne Axell

The exhibition shows works by Evelyne Axell, Sister Corita, Christa Dichgans, Rosalyn Drexler, Jann Haworth, Dorothy Iannone, Kiki Kogelnik, Marisol and Niki de Saint Phalle

For this first European exhibition on Female Pop Art, Evelyne Axell’s work is shown through 18 works dating from 1964 till 1970.

“The next great moment in history is ours!” Dorothy Iannone

Rediscovering outstanding women Pop artists, POWER UP fulfils Dorothy Iannone’s combative promise after fifty years. The show aims at the reinterpretation of an art movement that until today has primarily been associated with male protagonists. Plastic, loud colours, reduced forms, and graphic contours – the nine women artists’ works on display resemble those of their male colleagues in many respects. Whereas their works appeal to the taste of the masses, these artists, as pioneers of Feminism, have remained belligerent and critical. They reveal the consumer culture’s superficiality, exposing the commodity myth as an empty shell like Christa Dichgans, ironically transforming everyday objects to oversized kitsch objects like Jann Haworth, or exploring mass media clichés and superstar constructions like Rosalyn Drexler. Like Sister Corita, a committed peace activist, they took a clear stand on the sixties’ social and political events such as the Vietnam War.

Valentine

The exhibition pursues its political perspective in those instances where the era’s current notions of what a woman is are revised by different views: Kiki Kogelnik and Marisol describe the corset in which the representation of women by themselves and by others is caught, while Evelyne Axell or Dorothy Iannone provocatively display the nude body, love, and sexuality, and, like Niki de Saint Phalle, attract the viewer’s attention with sophisticated modes of self-presentation.

Autostop

Curator: Angela Stief

This exhibition will also be shown in Sammlung Falckenberg, Phoenix Kulturstiftung in cooperation with the Deichtorhallen Hamburg.

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