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Hamburger Kunsthalle Ă— arte: The Femme Fatale in Art
Just in time for International Women’s Day 2023 on 8 March, the German-French TV channel arte is releasing its documentary film “Die Femme fatale in der Kunst: Ein Mythos und seine Demontage” (in English: “The femme fatale in art: a myth and its dismantling”). The documentary is a cooperation between arte and the Museum Hamburger Kunsthalle.
John William Waterhouse | Circe offering the cup to Ulysses, 1891 | © Gallery Oldham
She is beguiling and fatal, a symbol of life and threat to life: the femme fatale in art. The stereotype of the erotically seductive and desirable woman who draws men under her spell, but ultimately also into misfortune, has long been shaped by male artists. They are the ones who show women in their works as beautiful, full-bosomed – and bringing death.
The Museum Hamburger Kunsthalle has already been dealing intensively with this topic since December 2022. Since then, the exhibition “Femme Fatale: Gaze – Power – Gender” is dedicated to the image of the femme fatale, which has been worked on in many different ways, which is both dazzling and clichĂ©d, and critically examines this image and contrasts it with a feminist view. The Hamburger Kunsthalle has put together more than 200 exhibits for the show.
The exhibition was also the occasion for the arte documentary film “Die Femme fatale in der Kunst: Ein Mythos und seine Demontage”, which was released on the arte media library on International Women’s Day 2023 on 8 March. The film shows how the image of the femme fatale has changed with the progressive struggle for equality and asks where we stand today. For in the course of the feminist movement, women also demanded their place in the male-dominated art scene. How do women see and show themselves in art? What do they do to counter the demonisation of female eroticism? And does something like the image of the femme fatale actually still exist in contemporary art?
Edvard Munch | Vampir im Wald | © Munchmuseet | Foto: Ove Kvavik
The documentary film “Die Femme fatale in der Kunst: Ein Mythos und seine Demontage” can be watched in French and German in the arte media library until 5 June 2023. In addition, subtitles are available in English, Italian, Polish and Spanish. The exhibition “Femme Fatale: Gaze – Power – Gender” is open to visitors at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany) until 10 April 2023.
Lead photo: Max Liebermann | Simson und Delila, 1902 | © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
