Exhibitions | Städel Museum

Uncensored. Annegret Soltau - A Retrospective

8 May to 17 August, 2025
Exhibition annex
Press Preview: Wednesday, 7 May 2025, at 11 am

Press texts

PRESS RELEASE

UNCENSORED. ANNEGRET SOLTAU—A RETROSPECTIVE

8 MAY 2025–17 AUGUST 2025
Exhibition annex
Press preview: Wednesday, 7 May 2025, 11 am

The body is political—as the work of artist Annegret Soltau (b. 1946) impressively demonstrates. Her art has been causing a stir since the 1970s and remains as relevant as ever. Long considered an insider’s tip despite her art historical significance, Soltau’s work is now regarded as one of the most important positions in feminist photography and body art.
Over the course of more than five decades and in the face of much opposition, Soltau’s independent, radically feminist visual language has established her as an indispensable voice in contemporary art. The Städel Museum is dedicating the first retrospective to her, developed in collaboration with the artist. With more than eighty works, the exhibition offers a comprehensive insight into her multifaceted oeuvre, which ranges from drawings to extended photography, video and installation. Among them are groundbreaking works from Soltau’s studio, some of which are being exhibited for the first time. Important loans from renowned institutions such as the Sammlung Verbund in Vienna, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, the Lenbachhaus in Munich and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe complete the exhibition.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, the Cultural Foundation of Hesse, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung and the Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V. Additional support is provided by Yoram Roth and the Georg und Franziska Speyer’sche Hochschulstiftung.

Central themes in Soltau’s work include feminism, body politics and the challenge of human and female identity. To this end, she has developed her own innovative techniques that transcend the boundaries of photography—photo-sewing, photo-restitching and photo-etching. In her self-portraits, Soltau questions female role models and sheds light on social norms by visualizing complex emotional worlds, inner conflicts and emotional states. Since the late 1970s, she has devoted herself to an artistic exploration of pregnancy and motherhood—themes that have been underrepresented in art for centuries and have only recently begun to receive increasing attention in both society and the art world. Her work is also a poignant expression of the ageing of the female body and questions of mortality. Soltau’s work has repeatedly been subject to public censorship; her depictions deviate from established aesthetic conventions and are perceived as provocative. The exhibition at the Städel Museum is an important corrective to this reception and a long overdue tribute to this great feminist and artist.

“Annegret Soltau’s radical formal language and fearless deconstruction of the human body open up new perspectives on identity, corporeality and artistic self-determination. Her art is highly expressive and ahead of its time. With this first retrospective, we honour more than five decades of Annegret Soltau’s artistic work. At the same time, it underscores the Städel Museum’s commitment to making pioneering women artists visible and to encouraging a broad public to engage with essential themes in contemporary art”, explains Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum.

Svenja Grosser, Head of Contemporary Art and curator of the exhibition, summarizes: “Annegret Soltau uses the body, her own self, as a venue for negotiating social structures. With her radical photo-sewing, she has created an entirely new artistic language and established the female body as a medium of self-empowerment. While she is internationally recognized, she has repeatedly faced drastic censorship in this country. We would like to correct this contradictory reception and present the artist Annegret Soltau for what she is: a pioneer of feminist art in Germany.”

The full press release can be found here.

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PRESS RELEASE

FRANKFURT FOREVER!
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARL FRIEDRICH MYLIUS

12 February TO 1 June 2025
Exhibition Hall of the Department of Prints and Drawings
Press preview: Tuesday, 11 February 2025, 11.00 am

His photographs are a journey through time. Carl Friedrich Mylius (1827–1916) shaped the image of Frankfurt like no other photographer. From the Zeil, the Eschenheimer Turm, the Goethe Monument and the Römer to the banks of the Main, he captured the city’s most famous sights. In doing so, he became a pioneer of architectural photography more than 150 years ago. From 12 February to 1 June 2025, the Städel Museum is devoting the first major solo exhibition to Carl Friedrich Mylius, featuring some eighty works. The occasion is the donation of 180 photographs from a private collection, which perfectly complement the Städel’s historical holdings of Carl Friedrich Mylius’s photographs and make them accessible to a broad public.

In the 19th century, Frankfurt was an important destination for travellers as a historic site of imperial coronations, as a trade fair city and because of its geographical location near the Middle Rhine. With the rise of tourism, Carl Friedrich Mylius’s photographs of sights that are still famous today became popular souvenirs. Many of his views show a city in transition. At the time, Frankfurt was undergoing not only a political reorganization as a result of Prussian annexation, but also rapid economic and social development. Industrialization and urbanization led to drastic structural changes—entire streets in the old town and inner city disappeared. As a chronicler of this period, Mylius documented the historical sites of his city as well as new buildings, industrial plants and the modern infrastructure. He was also drawn to the areas around Frankfurt—the Feldberg in the Taunus mountains, the towns of Kronberg, Königstein and Gelnhausen—and left behind the first surviving photographs of some of these places. One of the highlights of the exhibition is a 7.60 metre long view of the Main. It is the first photographic panorama in Germany.

“From the very beginning, the fascination with photography has remained unbroken. The photographs of Carl Friedrich Mylius, a native of Frankfurt, are a valuable visual legacy—artistically outstanding works and at the same time important documents of the city’s history. Mylius’s education and life are closely linked to the Städel Museum: he donated photographs to the Städel while he was still actively working. In 2023, this unique historical collection was expanded by a generous private donation. With this exhibition, we are able to present Carl Friedrich Mylius’s complete oeuvre comprehensively for the first time”, says Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum.

“Carl Friedrich Mylius was one of the first in the young Frankfurt photography scene of the late 1850s to specialize in architectural views. As a photographer, he was a neutral observer who captured his subjects objectively and impartially. At the same time, he used stylistic devices such as central perspective and balanced composition, demonstrating his keen sense of design. Even in these early days, photography was more than mere illustration—it was a means of capturing the city in an aesthetic dimension. This made Mylius an early pioneer of architectural photography”, explains Kristina Lemke, curator of the exhibition and Head of Photography, Städel Museum.

Curator: Dr Kristina Lemke (Head of Photography, Städel Museum) with support from Dr Brigitte Sahler
** Sponsored by:** Dr. Marschner Stiftung
With additional support from: Ina Petzschke-Lauermann
Cultural Partner: hr2-kultur

The detailed press information can be found here.

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EXHIBITION PREVIEW 2025 AND OUTLOOK 2026

A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY TO 19TH-CENTURY FRANKFURT, THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE RETROSPECTIVE DEVOTED TO ANNEGRET SOLTAU, THE DRAUGHTSMAN WERNER TÜBKE, ASTA GRÖTING IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION, A MAJOR AUTUMN EXHIBITION ON CARL SCHUCH AND FRENCH MODERNISM, MAX BECKMANN ON PAPER AND, IN THE SPRING OF 2026, MONET ON THE NORMANDY COAST. THE DISCOVERY OF ÉTRETAT

Read the full press release here.

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PRESS RELEASE

RINEKE DIJKSTRA
BEACH PORTRAITS

EXTENDED TO JULY 2025
Contemporary Art Collection

The ocean—a gaze: The artist Rineke Dijkstra (*1959) portrays young people looking directly into the camera on various beaches around the world—in Poland, Great Britain, Ukraine, Croatia and the United States. The carefully composed photographs are a search for the essence of human existence: sensitive encounters in which the artist also raises questions about authenticity and truthfulness in portrait photography. From 13 December 2024 to 27 July 2025, the Städel Museum will present 27 of Dijkstra’s works in a solo exhibition, including 23 images from her Beach Portraits series, which attracted international attention and established her as one of the most influential female photographers in contemporary art. Works from the Streets series and a self-portrait of the artist are also featured in the exhibition.
In the Beach Portraits series, created mainly in the 1990s, Dijkstra links the young people portrayed across national borders through a consistent composition. Set against the serene, basic background of the sea and reduced in context and clothing, the focus is entirely on the subjects, their characters and their youthful naturalness, which are manifested in the tiniest nuances of facial expression and posture—especially when, despite their best efforts, their emotional worlds are revealed. As a result, these powerful shots become timeless images that embody the human condition, full of uncertainty, curiosity and the search for identity. Through this unique visual language, which draws on art historical references ranging from the works of Sandro Botticelli to August Sander, among others, Dijkstra’s photographs express a contemporary historical view of the post-Cold War era.

Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum, notes: “Rineke Dijkstra's portraits could not be more contemporary, and at the same time they are already great works of art history: they have long been icons of photography. The medium of photography plays a central role in the Städel Museum’s collection: photographs were acquired for the teaching collection as early as the 1850s. Today, the collection comprises more than 5,000 works—from the beginnings of photography to the immediate present, including key works by pioneering female photographers. I am therefore all the more delighted that, with Rineke Dijkstra, we are now able to present such an important photographic artist at the Städel Museum.”

“In her work, Rineke Dijkstra succeeds in sensitively approaching the essence of the human being—a claim shared by photographic theory and art history. Rineke Dijkstra’s protagonists are people who are not only searching for their identity across cultural boundaries, but who are also united by a timeless question: ‘When and how do I understand myself and how do I want to be perceived by my environment?’ It is this empathetic, all-too-human moment that is expressed in Dijkstra’s works and makes them so timeless”, adds Maja Lisewski, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and curator of the exhibition.

Exhibition dates: 13 December 2024 to 18 May 2025
Curator: Maja Lisewski, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art Collection
Location: Städel Museum, Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt am Main
Städel Invites Rineke Dijkstra: 13 December 2024, in partnership with BMW

The detailed press information can be found here.

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Press images

Annegret Soltau, The Enclosed, 1973
SAMMLUNG VERBUND, Wien
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Fotostudio pixelstorm, Wien (Manfred Kostal and Christian Schindler)

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Annegret Soltau, The Enclosed, 1973

Annegret Soltau
Permanent Demonstration #3, 19.1.1976, 1976
Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt am Main
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Krause & Johansen

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Permanent Demonstration #3, 19.1.1976, 1976

Annegret Soltau, Self #1, 1975
SAMMLUNG VERBUND, Wien
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Fotostudio pixelstorm, Wien (Manfred Kostal and Christian Schindler)

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Annegret Soltau, Self #1, 1975

Annegret Soltau
With Myself, 1975/2022
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Rolf Gönner

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Annegret Soltau, With Myself, 1975/2022

Annegret Soltau
Divided MOTHER Column, 1980/81
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Ulrike Hölzinger-Deuscher

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Annegret Soltau, Divided MOTHER Column, 1980/81

Annegret Soltau
Surgical operations II, 11.10.2001, 2001
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Fotodesign Hefele Darmstadt - Germany

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Annegret Soltau, Surgical operations II, 11.10.2001, 2001

Annegret Soltau
transgenerative – MotherFatherDaughterSon, 76, 2005
Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt am Main
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Fotodesign Hefele Darmstadt - Germany

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Annegret Soltau, transgenerative – MotherFatherDaughterSon, 76, 2005

Annegret Soltau
Father search, XIV 11.4.2003, 2003
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Foto: Fotodesign Hefele Darmstadt - Germany

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Annegret Soltau, Father search, XIV 11.4.2003, 2003

Annegret Soltau
GRIMA – with cat, 1989
Yoram Roth Collection
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Photo: Alexander Kaula

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Annegret Soltau, GRIMA – with cat, 1989

Exhibition view "Frankfurt forever! Photographs by Carl Friedrich Mylius"
Photo: Städel Museum – Norbert Miguletz

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