'Unwritten – Vom Erwachsenwerden'
Museum Gunzenhauser (Kunstsammlung Chemnitz)
with Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter, Donna Volta Newmen, Theresa Rothe, Josefine Schulz, Johanna Seidel und Theresa Tuffner curated by Sandy Backer.
15.12.2024 – 16.03.2025

How do we think about youth? What dreams, desires, illusions, as well as turbulence and challenges, are associated with it and the subsequent transition into adulthood? The exhibition Unwritten – Coming of Age brings together 20th-century women artists from the Museum Gunzenhauser collection with contemporary perspectives. In the diverse works of Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter, Donna Volta Newmen, Theresa Rothe, Josefine Schulz, Johanna Seidel, and Theresa Tuffner, this exciting, intense, and often challenging phase of life emerges as formative for our identity, memories, and visions of the future.

The artworks highlight tenderness, warmth, and vulnerability. They capture a certain melancholy but are also imbued with humor and strength. They reflect shared, cross-generational experiences expressed through sculptures, spatial installations, prints, paintings, and drawings. Themes such as love, friendship, role models, empathy, and self-empowerment recur, alongside feelings of sadness and inner conflict. A hint of youthful lightness shines through, but so does the lingering question: when do we truly become adults?

Museum Gunzenhauser
Falkeplatz, 09112 Chemnitz
kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de