OLGA OPPENHEIMER

Olga Oppenheimer shaped modern art in the Rhineland – yet for a long time she fell into oblivion. On the occasion of her 140th birthday, the Cologne City Museum is dedicating an exhibition to the Cologne-based Expressionist (1886–1941), shedding light on her multifaceted life. Raised in a Jewish family in Cologne, she became a central figure of the Rhenish avant-garde as a co-founder of the Gereonsklub. Between 1910 and 1913, her paintings, woodcuts, and drawings were also exhibited internationally. The First World War, personal losses, and mental illness brought her artistic career to an early end. In 1918 she was committed to a psychiatric clinic, and in 1941 she was murdered as part of the Nazi “euthanasia” killings. Only fragments of her work survive – and today they are being reconsidered anew.