Annegret Soltau
ON THE ETCH – Etchings and Photo Etchings

Curated by Francesco Colli

Exhibition: May 17 – June 21, 2025

After nearly 30 years of collaboration with Annegret Soltau, we are delighted that her radical pioneering work on sensitive themes surrounding womanhood is finally receiving the attention that the art world often denied her at the time of its creation. The exhibition ON THE ETCH is dedicated to the etchings and photo etchings Annegret Soltau created between 1973 and 1982.

Since her studies, Soltau worked with etching and often chose aquatint — a technique that allows for fine gradation of surfaces and is particularly well-suited to the representation of corporeality. The artist first etched her plates and then reworked them to achieve tonal values and plasticity.

Themes such as identity, the body, femininity, and pain have preoccupied the artist to this day and find their origins in her early etchings, some of which are being shown for the first time in this exhibition. It was the artist’s intention to make representation as physically perceptible as possible. Sometimes distant, sometimes strikingly direct, these early prints are reminiscent of the work of Berlin artist Käthe Kollwitz. Kollwitz’s unflinching depictions of bodies marked by war and poverty, and faces shaped by personal life experiences, deeply moved Soltau and became a powerful artistic impulse for her own practice.

From 1975 onward, Soltau took a step further with photography. Her images were no longer anonymous allegories of inwardness but centered her own body as the material for exploration. The documentary and performative character of the medium evokes an immediate physical resonance in viewers. In 1977, Soltau developed the technique of photo etching by scratching into the negatives of her photographs with a needle, repeatedly printing them and gradually transforming the original image — sometimes to the point of complete dissolution. The selected photo etchings express her inner emotional states during pregnancy with particular poignancy — a time when being a mother and being an artist were still considered mutually exclusive.

A special focus is currently also being placed on Annegret Soltau’s work by the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, which, parallel to the ON THE ETCH exhibition, is presenting key works from various series. There, alongside etchings and photo etchings, photo performances and sewn and stitched photography works are also being shown — works that gained international attention in the late 1970s. As the first German museum to do so, the Städel Museum honors the artist with the extensive retrospective "ANNEGRET SOLTAU. UNCENSORED", thereby highlighting her pioneering role within the feminist avant-garde and underscoring the art- historical relevance of her multifaceted oeuvre.

Annegret Soltau’s works mark a turning point in how images of the body and self- representation are treated in contemporary art. Starting from the classical printmaking technique of etching, she developed experimental, distinctive methods such as photo etching, photo sewing, and photo over-sewing, combining them with a profound and often painful gaze into identity, gender, and transformation. From early on, she placed the female body at the center of her artistic inquiry — not as an object, but as a vessel of experience, memory, and resistance.

Her work is considered one of the most significant positions in Body Art and conceptual photography in the German-speaking world. Her pieces are represented in numerous international museum and private collections and are regularly exhibited worldwide.

Annegret Soltau
"ON THE ETCH"


Ausstellung: 17. Mai bis 21. Juni 2025
Eröffnung: Freitag, 16. Mai, 18.30 Uhr

Nach fast 30-jähriger Zusammenarbeit mit Annegret Soltau freut sich die Galerie, dass die radikale Pionierarbeit der Künstlerin in Bezug auf sensible Themen des Frau-Seins endlich die Aufmerksamkeit erfährt, die die Kunstwelt zu der Zeit der Entstehung ihrer Werke oft verweigert hat.

Die Ausstellung präsentiert Werke aus den 1970er Jahren. Als Meisterin der Radierung schuf Annegret Soltau in ihrer frühen Schaffensphase zahlreiche Radierungen, für die sie mit den unterschiedlichsten Techniken bei der Bearbeitung der Druckplatten experimentierte. Innere Gefühlswelten und körperliche Zustände, Verbunden- und Zerrissenheit, Einsamkeit, Mutterschaft und Tod waren die beherrschenden Themen dieser frühen Schaffensphase. In den 1970er Jahren übertrug die Künstlerin die bis dahin angewandten Methoden auf die Fotografie und entwickelte die Technik der Fotoradierung.

Indem sie sich selbst und ihren eigenen Körper sowohl zum Objekt als auch zum Subjekt ihrer Kunst machte, fand sie einen Weg, ihren Gefühlswelten noch unmittelbarer Ausdruck zu verleihen. Die Ausstellung On the Etch ermöglicht es, diese frühe und bis heute wenig bekannte Entwicklungsphase der Künstlerin nachzuvollziehen.

Kurator: Francesco Colli

parallel läuft die Retrospektive:

Annegret Soltau: "UNZENSIERT"
8. Mai 2025 bis 17. August 2025

Städel Museum
Schaumainkai 63
60596 Frankfurt am Main