Solo show: Painting Woman - Clara Porges – a retrospective (in 106 days)

	Clara Porges Luga­ner See Rich­tung Por­lez­za Luga­ner See Rich­tung Por­lez­za um 1940

Bro­mer Art Collec­tion (BAC) Bro­mer Art Collec­tion (BAC) Land­stras­se 53 4914 Rogg­wil-Kal­ten­her­berg Switzerland (city map, hotel accommodation) Send E-mail tel +41 62 - 918 10 80 www.bromerartcollection.com

The time around 1900 may be viewed as an era of great upheaval. Technological developments, boundless belief in progress, or the experience of the First World War strongly influenced the zeitgeist. In art, reality was worked through in various ways. Artists eagerly travelled the world in order to discover new motifs, some looked back to traditional values, and others took part in the emergence of what were considered extreme artistic directions. These were the times artist Clara Porges was working in. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her death, the BAC makes the rediscovery of this artist accessible to a wide audience in a wide-ranging exhibition.
Clara Porges (born Sommer) was born in Berlin in 1879. After studying at the City Art School and the Fehr Academy in Berlin from 1896 to 1900, in 1901 she went on a study tour of Italy, before spending time in Vienna to study landscape painting. She married Austrian violin virtuoso Friedrich Walter Porges and in 1905, the couple moved to Heidelberg, from where she undertook regular study tours to Switzerland. Reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s letters and his ‹Thus Spoke Zarathustra›, Porges’ attention was drawn to the Engadin region, where the writer and philosopher had spent highly productive years. In the Engadin, Porges discovered her strong connection to the landscape, and in 1918 she settled down in Sils Maria. Landscape became the main focus of her work. Over the following 20 years, Porges regularly spent summers in Maloja and winters in the Ticino or in Florence, where she studied at the Academy and gained the support of art historian Heinrich Wölfflin. Finally, thanks to his help, she was given a studio in Florence by the German artists’ foundation Villa Romana. From 1938, she once more lived and worked in the Engadin, renting a house in Sils, where villagers called her ‹the painting woman›. Study tours repeatedly led her to Florence, and she spent most winters in Lugano. Clara Porges died in 1963 in Samedan.
Next to works from the BAC collection, the exhibition will also feature works drawn from the collection of the Fundaziun Capauliana in Chur as well as from various private collections. The exhibition will be accompanied by the artist’s first comprehensive monograph.