For its second exhibition in Brussels, Galerie Christophe Gaillard is pleased to dedicate the ground floor of the gallery to a presentation of the work of German painter Ursula Schultze-Bluhm, better known as Ursula (1921 - 1999). The exhibition will bring together a selection of her works from the late 1950s and 1960s. We invite visitors to enter the fantastic and enchanting world of this avant-garde artist and explore the depths of her imagination!
Defining Ursula Schultze-Bluhm’s creations is not straight-forward, as her meticulous drawings and paintings form an autonomous body of work that defy easy categorization. Moreover, the self-taught artist and poet was born in Mittenwalde (DE) in 1921 and started working for the American Cultural Services in Berlin after World War II. In 1950, she began to devote herself to painting more intensely and subsequently went on regular trips to Paris, where she crossed paths with the legendary Jean Dubuffet, the father of Art Brut, in 1954. Their artistic affinity led to Ursula’s works being included in Dubuffet’s «Collection de l’Art Brut» in Lausanne. Ursula’s fantastical world, imbued with unconscious associations and myths, has also been linked to the Surrealist movement. In any case, there is no doubt that Ursula’s work is filled with an imagination that goes beyond conventional categorizations and defies belonging to either movement. Her transgressive, avant-garde thinking is testament to its enduring relevance in today’s world.
Her works can be found in the collections of the National Gallery in Berlin, the State Art Collections in Dresden, the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt am Main and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, among others. Until her death in 1999, Ursula’s work had been exhibited in several cultural venues, including the Galerie Daniel Cordier in Paris (FR), the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (NL) and Documenta 6 in 1977 in Kassel (DE). In March 2023, The Ludwig Museum in Cologne opened ‘Ursula - That’s Me. So What?’- the first comprehensive museum exhibition dedicated to her work in over thirty years, allowing for the long overdue reappraisal of her oeuvre.
