Opening May 2 and on view through July 26 at the Fairfield University Art Museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Famous & Family: Through the Lens of Trude Fleischmann marks the first American solo museum exhibition featuring the work of the renowned Austrian-born photographer.
This landmark show presents more than 100 photographs by one of the most accomplished female photographers of the 20th century, Trude Fleischmann (1895-1990). The show will highlight her groundbreaking career in Vienna during the 1920s and ’30s, as well as her influential work in the United States after her emigration in 1940.
“We are honored to present the first U.S. museum exhibition dedicated to Trude Fleischmann’s extraordinary work,” said Fairfield University Art Museum Executive Director Carey Weber. “Fleischmann’s photographs capture not only the spirit of her subjects but also the resilience and brilliance of a woman artist navigating — and shaping — two continents in turbulent times. This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to rediscover a truly groundbreaking figure in 20th-century photography.”
After opening her own studio in Vienna at the age of just 25, Fleischmann had great success photographing artists, dancers, actors, and other key cultural figures of the era. When the Nazis invaded during the Anschluss in 1938, she fled first to Paris, then London, and finally to New York. She opened a studio behind Carnegie Hall on 56th Street in 1940 and photographed many of the artists and intellectuals of the day, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson, and Albert Einstein.
Lenders to the exhibition include the Wien Museum in Vienna, Austria, the New York Public Library, and private collectors. The exhibition will also feature never-before-exhibited works from Fleischmann/Rosenberg, Haas, and Cornides family collections, as well as the family collection of her student and lifelong friend, photographer Helen Post (1907-1979). These works will provide an unprecedented and intimate view of the photographer’s personal and professional legacy.
On view in the gallery, in addition to the photographs, will be a documentary entitled In nackter Gesesllschaft (The Naked Gaze) (2019), by Katherina Lochmann and Pogo Kreiner, informed by Anna Auer’s interview with Trude Fleischmann at her home in retirement in Lugano, Switzerland. The film brings to life Fleischmann’s photo studio and its elite clientele during 1920s and 30s.
Fleischmann’s work is included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, the Wien Museum, the Albertina Museum, and many other important public and private collections around the world.
The exhibition is curated by Museum Executive Director Carey Weber together with Trude Fleischmann’s cousin Barbara Loss. A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by the artist’s biographer Heike Herrberg will be available in the galleries.
The Fairfield University Art Museum is open to all, free of charge. Registration for events and programs is requested via Eventbrite.
