Lisa Oppenheim
Lisa Oppenheim
Beim Spitzenhändler, 1943/2024
Lisa Oppenheim’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands was held in Amsterdam’s Huis Marseille from mid-March to mid-June 2024. In ‘Spolia’, the New York artist presented her version of Dutch artworks that were stolen by the Nazis and never recovered. She based the work on the photographic documentation of the Germans who confiscated the art. The exhibition also included a striking series of tapestries entitled Beim Spitzenhändler (1943/2024).
The still life depicted on the eight woven tapestries comes from a lace cloth once owned by the Amsterdam banker Felix Mannheimer. In collaboration with the TextielLab, Oppenheim translated the archive image into a textile made of merino wool, linen and cotton in various shades of grey. The series, which gets darker and darker, is a reference to Nazi misappropriation. While the details become increasingly difficult to see, the series keeps the memory of the stolen art alive.
Untitled & Untitled in Negative, 1939/2024
These two tapestries, which were also shown in ‘Spolia’ in Huis Marseille, are a further tribute to Fritz Mannheimer’s stolen textile collection. They are not literal reconstructions but new works based on the little that has been preserved: two gelatin silver negatives in the ERR archive. The silver thread in the fabrics is a reference to these negatives.
