Art Historian Silvia Wistuba on the ‘Malweiber’ - Female Artists of German Modernism

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To learn more about Silvia Wistuba and her work, please visit here and here.

Cover Image: Wistuba's adaptation of work by artist Julie Wolfthorn for the cover of Jugend magazine (1898).

Show Notes

0:00 Silvia Wistuba on equality of artists

1:15 Wistuba’s background

2:30 Gabriele Münter

4:30 ‘Malweiber’ meaning 

6:00 timeframe of ‘Malweiber’ labeling – 1871-1918

8:30 research process

12:00 regional approach to research

15:00 twelve female artists focused on in research

16:30 finding that art is not gendered

18:15 Charlotte Corinth

21:30 Dora Hitz

22:40 Maria Slavona

24:25 Augusta von Zitzewitz

25:20 Erma Bossi

26:25 Elisabeth Epstein

27:23 Maria Franck-Marc

30:30 Gabriele Münter

32:25 Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke

34:25 Ida Gerhardi 

36:30 Fifi Kreutzer

37:55 Olga Openheimer

40:30 range of resources 

43:30 Blue Rider Group

45:30 Gabriele Münter’s donation to Lenbachhaus (Munich) 

49:00 Museum Art of the Lost Generation 

51:30 current relevance

53:30 need for discourse on art’s social context

55:08 social justice for artists of the past

55:20 defining justice as respect shown to all

56:25 feedback

58:10 challenging the sexist paradigm that art is gendered

59:40 plans to convert thesis into book

1:00:15 derogatory nature of term ‘Malweiber’

1:01:45 cover image inspired by Julie Wolfthorn’s image 

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Music by Toulme.

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© Stephanie Drawdy [2026]