Hannah Ryggen weaves stories of striking topicality. Her monumental tapestries bravely tackle the fundamental issues of life in society today: the atrocity of war, the abuse of power, the dependence on nature and the relation to family as well as fellow men and women. Living on a small self-sufficient farm on the west coast of Norway, the Swedish-Norwegian artist created a powerful, politically inspired oeuvre. She launched spectacular visual attacks on Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini and made powerful statements of support to the victims of Fascism and Nazism. On the occasion of Norway’s turn as Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019, the SCHIRN is dedicating a major monographic exhibition that will provide the first in-depth insight into her oeuvre to the German public. The roughly 25 tapestries on display will also show Hannah Ryggen as a representative of a different kind of modernism, a modernism where elements from folk art and mythology are mixed with issues from contemporary life. She explored an entirely new range of motifs while using a traditional medium for an unprecedented purpose: making portable murals that communicated her potent political messages to the public.

The cata­logue provides insights into Ryggen’s compelling and powerful oeuvre that is uncan­nily contem­po­rary in our times of increasing inequality, nation­alism and populism. The essays offer broad insights into Hannah Ryggen’s turbu­lent life and impres­sive oeuvre.

A compre­hen­sive chronology and biog­raphy delves deep into the world of Hannah Ryggen not only relates some highly personal expe­ri­ences of an artist, who all her life has supported herself and her family, but also describes several deci­sive events in world poli­tics that she commented on consis­tently using a clear visual language

ALL PUBLI­CA­TIONS