Curated by Gudrun Danzer and Günther Holler-Schuster

With the exhibition Ladies First! the Neue Galerie Graz undertook an attempt in 2020/21 at a historical snapshot of local women artists from 1850 to 1950. The title of the follow-up exhibition ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ is also taken from the context of chivalry – while the high-sounding empty phrases are both popular and represent a provocation, they are intended to provide easy access to the subject.

The exhibition, which considers the period beginning in the present day reaching back to the 1960s, is international in perspective and based on the collection at the Neue Galerie Graz. The exhibition and collection history has resulted in differing priorities and nuances in terms of content, which, parallel to the general development, can be placed within the context of the feminism and gender debate. The fact that several ‘gentlemen’ are now mingling with the ‘ladies’ is thanks to the current discussion, as well as the specific exhibition history of the Neue Galerie Graz. In 1979, the Neue Galerie Graz, within the framework of the trigon Biennale, reacted to the so-called New Women’s Movement, in which female visual artists had been heavily involved internationally, with the exhibition masculin feminin. At the trigon ’79, however, one already followed the notions of the equality of the sexes, inviting female and male artists to participate in roughly equal measure. mehr