Renate Bertlmann

(Austrian, born 1943)

Renate Bertlmann is a Austrian visual artist best known for her avant-garde style and focus on feminist themes. Often compared to Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, and Birgit Jürgenssen, Bertlmann’s work explores sexuality, love, gender, and eroticism within a social context, oftentime employing the use of pornographic imagery and props. Examples include her Tender Touches (1976) photography series, and her famed 1978 performance piece Pregnant Bride with Collection Bag, which featured Bertlmann dressed as a pregnant bride, asking visitors for money towards the upkeep of a holy relic on display. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1943, Bertlmann studied painting, conservation, and technology at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna from 1964 to 1970. Linda Nochlin’s seminal 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” had a great influence on Bertlmann, it “woke her from a Sleeping Beauty slumber,” the artist explained. Around this time, she also became involved with the Women’s Liberation Movement, “the engagement with female creativity, the analyses of patriarchal mechanisms of repression, and all the personal experiences connected with this.” Bertlmann has been featured in many exhibitions, including the 2015 The World Goes Pop at London's Tate Modern, and the 2019 Venice Biennale, where she was selected to represent Austria. She currently lives and works in Vienna, Austria.