Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff

Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff (1923–2011), one of the most successful women in post-war sculpture, was not only sought after in Germany. In the 1950s and 1960s, her innovative metal sculptures went on show, for example, at the Kassel documenta, the Biennale di Venezia and the World’s Fair in New York. The young artist garnered major awards, and seminal publications by art scholars featured her works.

Today she is perceived primarily as one half of the duo Matschinsky-Denninghoff, which she founded in 1970 with her husband Martin Matschinsky (1921–2020). The big metal sculptures made by the couple are still landmarks in the public space not least in Berlin on the central island in Tauentzienstrasse or outside the Berlinische Galerie. When the duo was founded, the couple retrospectively declared themselves joint authors of the early sculptures by Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff. From this point on, her works were only exhibited under the shared name Matschinsky-Denninghoff. Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff vanished from art history.

After a gap of 50 years, the sculptures which bore the mark “Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff” until the duo’s foundation are being honoured again as her independent contribution to modern art. Preparations for the exhibition entailed an evaluation of the couple’s documentary and artistic estate. Since 2021 it has been managed by a foundation, Stiftung Matschinsky-Denninghoff, under the roof of the Berlinische Galerie in collaboration with VAN HAM Art Estate.