Bettina von Arnim
Landscapes and Labyrinths
Paintings, Etchings, and a Mirror Box
19 January – 2 March 2024, Opening: 18 January, 6-9 p.m.

The exhibition “Landscapes and Labyrinths” brings together oil paintings, etchings, and a mirror box by Bettina von Arnim. The artist’s first solo exhibition in Germany took place in 1970 at the Galerie Poll.

Recently her cyborgs, portraits of android machine-beings around 1970, captured the attention of the art world. This exhibition shifts focus to the landscapes and labyrinths she has been creating since the mid-1970s – works that early on highlighted the escalating destruction of nature and environment. Her depictions of a technologized, bureaucratic, stereotyped, denatured, and homogenized environment serve as a cautionary warning against naïve optimism about progress, symbolizing the supremacy of manipulative intelligence (Werner Rhode, 1973).  

The landscapes shown from a bird’s eye view are intersected by ruler-straight walls and angular, maze-like passages. While some are devoid of human presence, others are dotted with tiny figures and animals navigating through the labyrinthine pathways. Geometric shapes evolve into complex networks and, eventually, into cityscapes formed of rows of letters and mirror writing that create a sense of perspective. In the mirror box, these stereotypical landscapes are infinitely replicated.

“We glimpse the utopia of a world that has crystallized into a system of signs”, observes Rüdiger Safranski in the 1985 catalogue that accompanied Arnim’s exhibition at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein.

Bettina von Arnim excels in weaving her message into intricately painted and aesthetically impeccable images. She has honed her etching technique to a fine art, creating captivating reflections by overlaying multiple plates printed in diverse colours.

Following the “German Pop” showcase at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main, Arnim’s creations have enjoyed a resurgence of interest and have been prominently featured in a number of group shows organized by art societies and museums. Notable among them: “ÜberLeben: Fragen an die Zukunft” at the Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin (2022–2023); “Les Portes du Possible” at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2022); “Scratching the Surface” at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin (2021), “Der montierte Mensch” at the Museum Folkwang in Essen (2019); and “Real Pop 1960–1985: Malerei und Grafik zwischen Agit Pop und Kapitalistischem Realismus” at the Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst in Frankfurt an der Oder (2018).

Currently, her pieces “Optiman” (1969) and “Riß” (1981) are on display in “Extreme Tension: Art between Politics and Society, Collection of the Nationalgalerie 1945–2000” at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (through 28th September 2025).

Bettina von Arnim, born in 1940 in Zernikow, Brandenburg, and a descendant of the renowned Romantic poet of the same name, spent the academic year of 1957–1958 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a scholarship from the American Field Service. From 1960 to 1965 she studied at the Berlin State School of Fine Arts (Staatlichen Hochschule für Bildende Künste) under Fritz Kuhr. During this period, from 1962 to 1963, she was awarded a scholarship from the Maison de France, leading her to Paris, where she honed her skills in etching techniques including aquatint in the workshop of the graphic artist Johnny Friedlaender. Bettina von Arnim, along with Arwed D. Gorella, Maina-Miriam Munsky, Wolfgang Petrick, Peter Sorge, Joachim Schmettau, and others, was among the founding members of the group Aspekt (1972–1977). Since 1975, she has lived and worked in southwestern France. Her works can be found in significant private and public collections, including those of the Berlinische Galerie, the Deutsche Bank, the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, and the Kunstmuseum Bonn.