Lotte Laserstein – a German painter

Lotte Laserstein (1898–1993)
Born in Preussisch Holland, Lotte moved to Berlin to study at the prestigiouis Berlin Academy of Fine Arts as one of the women artists to study there in the period 1919 – 1925. She had her first solo exhibition in a Berlin gallery in 1930, but in 1935 she had to close her studio, her family’s home was confiscated by the state due to them having Jewish ancestors and in 1937 she moved to Sweden, where she lived for the rest of her life. Lotte became a member of the Swedish Academy of Arts.

In 2003, a large retrospective of Laserstein’s work was held in Berlin. In-depth research was carried out by Anna-Carola Krausse which was synthesised in the exhibition catalogue, Lotte Laserstein: My Only Reality.

Wikipedia reads: Lotte Laserstein “depicted the New Woman, who also adopted a stereotyped appearance of a masculine look, typically with a man’s style haircut. As a single professional woman, Laserstein can be seen to adhere to the definition of the New Woman, and her androgynous look is evident in her many self-portraits, for example, Self-portrait with cat at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery.” The painting of her with the cat is included in the above slideshow.

Some of Lotte Laserstein’s works will be presented at the exhibition Homosexuality_ies June 26 to December1, 2015 at the Schwules Museum*, Lützowstraße 73, 10785 Berlin.