Lotte Laserstein

Lotte Meta Ida Laserstein was born in the province of East Prussia and was of Jewish background. Her father died when she was 5 years old and she grew up with her mother and grandmother in Gdansk and in Berlin. Laserstein entered the Berlin Academy as one of the first generation of female painters. It was the “roaring 20s” and she was very successful with her portrayals of especially the young modern urban women of Weimar Republic. Laserstein frequently took part in group exhibitions as well as solo exhibitions. Her production, however, was narrow and exquisite. With the influence of Nazism in the early 1930s the political climate hardened and it became increasingly difficult for her to show her work. 1934 is the last year that she is permitted to participate in a public exhibition in Germany and her promising career came to a halt.

An opportunity opens up in 1937 and Lotter Laserstein travels to Sweden, bringing the bulk of her production with her. She exhibits at Galerie Modern in Stockholm, and decides to try to stay in Sweden permanently. Times are challenging, visas are granted only three months at the time, the possibility to return Germany is dangerous, but Laserstein decides to prevail and makes living painting portraits on commission. By 1987 Lotte Laserstein was 89 years old and more or less forgotten in the art world. She lived a quiet life in Kalmar on the Swedish East coast when the prestigious Agnews Gallery in London exhibits her early works in collaboration with the artist. This was the beginning of a remarkable international rediscovery of Laserstein as an artist. In 2003 Museum Ephraim-Palais i Berlin opened the exhibition "Meine einzige Wirklichkeit", with a catalogue by Dr. Anna-Carola Krausse, followed by several exhibitions in Sweden, in Kalmar, in Stockholm and in Uppsala.