Woman Made of Plaster

June 18th 2020 until September 15th 2020

Woman Made of Plaster marks the start of a series of exhibitions in which an item from the collection is introduced along with its history. When we rediscovered this life-size female nude in the town archives, we initially had no idea that it would take us back to one of the darkest chapters of German history. This account of our enquiries is longer than a normal exhibition text, for instead of just an explanation, it’s actually a complete narrative.

At first, the female figure was nameless. It has many flaws and only one arm. It was cast in plaster, which is why it’s so fragile. At first sight, its strict design gives it an almost Greek appearance, with face and hair formed in sharp lines. Woman Made of Plaster is beautiful in the classical sense, but lacks individual features: rather than the image of a real person, it represents an ideal. The artist’s name and the date are somewhat obscured on the base: „Schmid-Ehmen 1939“.