Female Expressionism. Helene Funke

Helene Funke, whose 150th birthday will be celebrated in 2019, is established a kind of expressionism sui generis. Alongside Gabriele Münter she studied at the Ladies’ Academy in Munich, she exhibited her works together with Matisse and Picasso in the Paris art salons and was successful as a multi-award-winning painter and graphic artist alongside Klimt and Schiele in Vienna. Unusual portraits of women and women's groups were her trademark: she liberated women from their passive roles, turning them into active observers and self-confident protagonists within a female collective. In her days, Funke was the only modern artist from Chemnitz to receive international acclaim. In 1957, despite more than 40 exhibition participations from Paris to Hamburg and Stockholm, she died impoverished and forgotten in Vienna; her artistic estate was dispersed. Only in the last few years, her work has been rediscovered.
Some of the over 60 paintings, graphics and drawings presented here had been considered lost and are newly presented for the first time. Funke’s vibrant colors, her wild brushstroke, her expressive portraits and female nudes, her unconventional perspectives have not lost any of their fascination and magic. A special feature of her work are photographic self-portraits—“selfies,” as one would call them today—taken at the beginning of the 20th century.
The volume traces Funke's artistic development and looks at her work and life. But there are still many puzzles about this multi-faceted and inspired Viennese maverick who experienced firsthand major art styles at the time and place of their emergence.

A View into the book you can find under "http://verlag.sandstein.de/reader/98-435_HeleneFunke"