Focused on eight female artists (Claude Cahun, Sonia Delaunay, Germaine Dulac, Florence Henri, Hannah Höch, Katarzyna Kobro, Dora Maar and Sophie Taeuber-Arp) who made major contributions to Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism and other European avant-gardes of the modernist era, Women of the Avant-Garde 1920-1940 reveals the story of a network of artists who were pioneers and driving forces in the avant-garde movements that flourished in Europe during the period.

With the upheavals of the time challenging traditional and authoritarian social structures, new opportunities arose for the female artists who knew how to be in the right place at the right time – in those years primarily in centers like Berlin, Zürich, Paris, Amsterdam, and Warsaw. 

The women of the avant-garde took part in redefining art and at the same time, they challenged the notion of what women can, may and should do. Women had no historical status in the academies and artists’ groups that were the natural platforms for men in the art world. The women had to make their own way, and independence, openness, and mobility are recurring features in all eight biographies. 

With a foreword by Poul Erik Tøjner and Marion Ackerman and an introduction by Mette Marcus and Kirsten Degel. Text by Ruth Hemus.

Edited by Michael Juul Holm, Kirsten Degel, Mette Marcus, Jeanne Rank

Designed by Pernille Ferdinandsen, Stendhal Grafik

Published by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2013

Hardcover, 128 pages, 8.5 × 10.2 inches

ISBN: 978-87-92877-00-0