Berthe Lutgen was born in Esch-sur-Alzette in Southern Luxembourg. Her father was a civil servant and her mother owned a sewing workshop
Lutgen trained in fine arts at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1959 to 1961, before receiving further training at the Kunstakademie in Munich in 1962. In 1972, she returned to university in order to obtain a diploma as an art teacher. Specifically, she attended the Staatliche Kunstakademie (‘State art academy’) in Düsseldorf from 1972 to 1976, before receiving further education at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität in Bonn from 1977 to 1979. She taught art at Lycée technique Nic-Biever in Dudelange from 1979 and, from 1982 to 1996, at Athénée de Luxembourg.
In 1959, Lutgen married Joseph Weydert, an artist and German teacher. She gave birth to a daughter. Throughout her life, she regularly travelled across Europe, including visits to the Venice Biennale and the Documenta in Kassel.
Lutgen has created artworks in various artistic fields: oil and acrylic on canvas and paper, mixed media, collage, engraving (silkscreen), drawing, and installation. The representation of women in society has been the main theme in her work since the beginning. Since the end of the 1960s, the subject has become increasingly important (e. g. Sans titre, 1968) and has been at the heart of her creative activity to this day. As a committed artist, she has also addressed socio-political events (social injustice, the fate of refugees, pollution, environmental destruction, global warming). In addition, she often incorporated motifs from art history into her work, with references to Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Edouard Manet (1832-1883), or René Magritte (1898-1967), for example.
Since the beginning of her career, Lutgen's work has been featured in monographic and group exhibitions. In 1965, her first national monographic exhibition took place at Galerie Horn, followed by a show at Galerie Interart in Luxembourg City in 1967. In 1968, her first solo exhibition abroad was held at the Gabriel gallery in Mannheim. It was not until 2001 that she had another monographic exhibition at the Galerie d'Art du Théâtre in Esch-sur-Alzette. Several exhibitions followed at Toxic Gallery in Luxembourg, as well as at Galerie La Capitale in Paris. The Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neimünster in Luxembourg City devoted an exhibition to her in 2022. As far as group exhibitions are concerned, Lutgen participated in the Salon du Cercle Artistique du Luxembourg (CAL) for the first time in 1962. In 1968, an exhibition entitled Situation 1968 de l'Art Moderne au Luxembourg took place in Esch-sur-Alzette. Abroad, the artist participated in the XII. Kunstausstellung der Europäischen Vereinigung aus Eifel und Ardennen (12th Exhibition of the European Association of Plastic Artists from the Eiffel and Ardennes) in Prüm in 1969. In the same year, a large international exhibition was held under the title Initiative 69. Première exposition non affirmative et coopérative d'art actuel in Luxembourg City. In 2008, the exhibition Dissidences. Ronderëm 68 was organised at Kulturfabrik in Esch-sur-Alzette. The exhibition Summer of '69 in 2021 at the Villa Vauban featured two artists: Berthe Lutgen and Misch Da Leiden.
In 1968, Lutgen worked with Carlo Dickes, Roger Kieffer, Marc-Henri Reckinger, René Wiroth, Pierre Ziesaire, Misch Da Leiden, Joseph Weydert, and Robert Collignon. The group, called Arbeitsgruppe Kunst, was at the origin of the first Luxembourg happening in an institutional setting.
The artist's work features in several public (Musée national d'archéologie, d'histoire et d'art (MNAHA), Les 2 Musées de la Ville de Luxembourg, Ministry of Culture) and private collections in Luxembourg.
As stated above, Lutgen participated in drawing the Ligne brisée in the Grund neighbourhood of Luxembourg City in 1969. In 2012, she pasted posters of her Codex Aureus Epeternacesis Reloaded on the advertising columns of Luxembourg City, in the context of a campaign on the restrictive reform of the abortion legislation. In 2020, she exhibited La Marche des Femmes on Place d'Armes, a work consisting of a group portrait of 50 women, denouncing injustice and violence against women worldwide. The event was part of the first "Women's Strike" in Luxembourg. For one week in 2022, she staged a performance called Nevermore on the capital’s advertising columns, in order to draw attention to violence against women.
As mentioned above, in 1968, Lutgen co-founded the Arbeitsgruppe Kunst, an art collective active until 1970. In 1969, she briefly became a member of the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR) (‘Revolutionary Communist League‘) and subsequently, the groupe Initiative 69 From 1970 to 1976 she was the co-founder of the Groupe de recherche d'art politique (GRAP) and in 1971 she founded the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF), which was active until 1992.
In 1996, Lutgen was awarded an honorary title by the Luxembourg Government for her teaching career. In 2020, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. She received the first Lëtzebuerger Konschtpräis (‘Luxembourg Art Prize’) in 2022.
The critical reception of her work can be traced back to her first exhibition at the Salon du CAL, where the artist stood out for the originality of her informal work. However, according to critic Jean-Paul Raus, it was not appreciated by the public (10). In 1967, art historian Joseph Walentiny noted that the artist's work brings together an art of protest, where Pop Art, Op Art, Dada, Surrealism, and Naturalism coexist (4). In 1968, the same author described Lutgen as a young painter, certainly the most daring of Luxembourg's avant-gardists, who bemused the public with her more materialistic works (Walentiny 4) before moving towards a more conceptual art. In 1968, following the happening presented at the Salon du CAL, artist Joseph Weydert was pleased to see more experimental art finally being presented in Luxembourg after having fought for it (Thill 170). An article in the Tageblatt from 2006 states that Lutgen used the existing techniques for depicting women but does so in an alternative and more personal way ("Berthe Lutgen expose à Paris."). In 2010, photography historian Françoise Poos highlighted Lutgen's crucial role in the critics’ equal recognition of women artists in a society that, remains dominated by conservative and patriarchal ideas (Poos 82). In 2011, art historian Edmond Thill considered the Ligne brisée from 1969 as one of the first manifestations of Land Art in Luxembourg, emphasising its contemporary character (174). In 2011, art critic Lucien Kayser described Lutgen's art as feminist and a denunciation of social inequality, in the context of her exhibition Who is Afraid of Painting? (Lutgen et al. Berthe Lutgen: Faire Face 134). In 2013, according to writer Clotilde Escalle, the artist was able to translate the ill-being of the world and encourages the viewer to engage in her continuous struggle and quest (Lutgen et al. 114). In 2014, art critic Christian Mosar compared the artist's socio-political art with certain aspects of the French Nouvelle Figuration (Lutgen et al. 8). In 2021, following an in-depth analysis of a series of screen prints, art historian Stefanie Zutter found that the artist worked in "a conceptual and realist pictorial language" (Thewes et al. 26). In this context, the screen prints emerge as original works "between painting and graphic reproduction" (Thewes et al. 43). In addition, they illustrate the determination of female artists in the Pop Art era (Thewes et al. 43). In 2022, art historian Nathalie Becker highlighted the power of Lutgen’s art, because of its fight with social injustice (Lutgen 7).
Works cited
"Berthe Lutgen expose à Paris." Tageblatt 24.03.2006: page unknown. Print.
Kayser, Lucien. "Ce que peut la peinture." D’Lëtzebuerger Land 23.12.2011: page unknown. Print.
Lutgen, Berthe, France Clarinval, Clotilde Escalle, Sonja Kmec, Hélène Nicol, Marina Wathelet, Jos Boggiani, Lucien Kayser, and Christian Mosar. Berthe Lutgen: Faire Face. Nospelt: Ultimomondo, vol. 87, 2014. Print.
Lutgen, Berthe. L'enjeu. 2nd ed. Luxembourg: Berthe Lutgen, 2022. Print.
Poos, Françoise. "L'âge de l'innocence." Roster, Danielle, Renée Wagener, Jeff Baden, and CID Fraen an Gender. Not the Girl You're Looking for - Melusina Rediscovered: Objet Sujet - La Femme dans la culture au Luxembourg. Luxemburg: Schortgen - Cid-femmes, 2010, 73-82. Print.
Raus, Jean-Paul. "Le Salon 1962." D’Lëtzebuerger Land 26.10.1962: 10. Print.
Thewes, Guy, Gabriele Grawe and Stefanie Zutter. Summer of '69: Oeuvres de Berthe Lutgen et Misch Da Leiden depuis les années de révolte. Luxembourg: Les 2 Musées de la Ville de Luxembourg, 2021. Print.
Thill, Edmond. "Art et contestation au Luxembourg (1967-1971)." Arts et Lettres: Publication de la Section des Arts et Lettres de l'Institut Grand-Ducal 2 (2011): 147-189. Print.
Walentiny, Joseph. "Berthe Lutgen in the Ernest Horn Gallery." Luxemburger Wort 16.02.1968: 4. Print.
Walentiny, Joseph. "Berthe Lutgen in der Galerie Interart." Luxemburger Wort 31.05.1967: 4. Print.
Malgorzata Nowara
2022-11-28
Please cite this article as follows:
Malgorzata Nowara."Berthe Lutgen."
konschtlexikon.lu.
Last updated
2022-11-28.https://www.konschtlexikon.lu/entry/lkl001534/.Web.Accessed
13/11/2024.