Three Heads, 1944. ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2024

Talk by art historian Ines Schlenker

£9pp including wine/soft drink

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Vienna. She trained under the German painter Max Beckmann and embarked on a promising career. Forced to emigrate in 1938, she settled in England, initially in Amersham. Her attempts to build a new life in exile were supported by a network of fellow émigrés, among them the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the writer Elias Canetti, with whom she had a long relationship. Although shown in several exhibitions, her large oeuvre was mainly created away from the public eye. Her breakthrough in England came in 1985 with a solo exhibition at the Goethe-Institut in London where she was hailed as ‘a dazzling talent’. Since then her reputation as a major émigré artist has steadily grown.

Ines Schlenker is an independent art historian with a research focus on National Socialist, ‘degenerate’ and émigré art. She wrote the catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (2009) and co-edited the artist’s correspondence with the writer Elias Canetti (2011).

Please make sure you have checked details before ordering tickets. It is necessary for the museum to charge a cancellation fee of £1 to cover credit card and administration costs.

This talk will be held in the Museum’s Woodcock Room on the first floor. It is served by a platform lift as well as stairs. More information about building access is given here. If you have any queries or requirements, please do not hesitate to get in touch on 01494 723700 or [email protected]