Power Frauen Show: Lotte Reiniger

“Lotte Reiniger” Stretched Quilt by Elaine Luther, 2024

Power Frauen Show in Chicago

DANK Haus, the German American Cultural Center in Chicago, put out a call for art for art about German-speaking women from history, with a list of names and bios to choose from.

There were so many amazing women on the list, some of whom I didn’t know spoke German (or were German or Austrian), some who I knew because we have a sticker of them in my shop, these are illustrated by artist Betsy Zacsek, and I had researched them for a blog post over on BeingBold.me. Those include Hedy Lamarr and Käthe Kollwitz. I also knew about Lotte Reiniger from my research for Being Bold and from a podcast episode I’d heard, from Stuff You Missed in History.

Here’s the Dankhaus short summary about her: “Charlotte ‘Lotte” Reiniger’ was born June 2 1899, in Berlin, Germany. She
was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation.”

DANK Haus will be hosting a film screening of Reiniger’s most famous animated film, Prince Achmed!  August 29th, in the evening.  See their site for all the details.

I requested Lotte Reiniger for my artwork and once accepted, got to work, looking for public domain images I could turn into cyanotypes.

When I do an historical piece like this, I go down some research rabbit holes, like, what clothing was worn in Germany in the 1920s and 30s when she was getting started making films? I couldn’t get a definitive answer on that, though it was interesting reading.

Since she hand-cut all of the “shadow puppets” she used for her animation, I wanted to make a photogram of scissors for this piece. I bought a pair of scissors on eBay that were made in Germany in the right time period and also looked cool.

Then, I studied the photos of her more carefully and found some clues. In one photo, she’s wearing a polka dot shirt. In two photos, she’s holding scissors. I included a piece of polka dot fabric into the piece, to reference her shirt, and I read somewhere that she used dissection scissors. In the photo, you can see that her scissors have long handles and short blades, with round handles.

Comparison of printing photograms with the sun vs. with a lightbox. Cyanotypes by Elaine Luther.  The top photo is the sun.

I started looking for dissection scissors and lo and behold – long handles, short blades, pretty round handles! I bought a pair and made the photogram. A photogram is a cyanotype where you place an object directly on your cyanotype fabric or paper and get an image of that object in white.

I printed the photo of her three times, each time using a different light source, until I got the one I was happy with.

Next came the sewing. I pieced all the elements together, improv style, and then stretched it over batting and canvas. It’s signed and dated on the back.

This piece is up at Dankhaus, along with many other excellent pieces about these women from history, and their stories, through October 26th.

It’s fun to see how each artist interpreted each woman’s life and work, one piece is an animation, for example.

In telling people about this show, I learned that Dankhaus is in Chicago’s “Old German Town,” which is now known as Lincoln Square. In many U.S. cities, any neighborhoods that were named something like Germantown were renamed during World War II.

It’s a terrific show, go in person if you can – they have lots of events happening during the run of the show.  If you can’t go in person, follow them on the socials so you can see all the art!

I meant to take a photo of my piece during the opening, but it was so well attended, and I was having so many great conversations, that I didn’t get a photo!  So the one above is just a quick snap taken on my work table in the studio.

Here are some images from the installation and opening night, via the DANK Haus social media.

About DANK Haus

The DANK Haus German American Cultural Center is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization
committed to preserving and promoting German and German American culture, heritage, and
language through maintaining a language school, museum, library, art gallery, and through
educational and social programming. It is located in Chicago’s historically German
neighborhood, Lincoln Square. Core programming includes a German Language School for
children and adults, rotating Fine Arts and Museum exhibits, monthly Open Haus, Kulturküche
Cooking Classes, Kino, Kaffee und Kuchen, Public Event Viewing Parties, Oktoberfest and
more. The DANK Haus is a core member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance – a consortium of
ethnic museums, cultural centers and historical societies whose mission is to effect social
change through cultural diversity