The American artist Nancy Spero (1926-2009) was a feminist pioneer. As an activist in the 1960s, she levelled her art against all existing power structures, notably political oppression, racism and male hegemony.

Dealing with the violence in her time – World War II followed by the Vietnam War and Third World oppression – Spero’s work also aspired to define a different material, drawing inspiration from ancient cultures. Long paper friezes are inhabited by supernatural figures, fighters and lovers, often in cyclical processions placing women at the absolute centre of the world.

An exhibition of Museum Folkwang, Essen, in cooperation with Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Stockholm, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Lillehammer Art Museum. Supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Nancy Spero was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and trained at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949. Subsequently she spent several periods in Paris. In 1964, she settled in New York in a changed USA that had entered into the Vietnam War. Spero joined the anti-war movement, participated in various actions and became engaged in groups such as Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Vietnam.

In succeeding years, the war became the most important theme in Spero’s art, and in 1966-1970, the War Series arose, a succession of more than 100 works that unrelentingly condemned the Vietnam War.

The exhibition is the first presentation of the artist’s work in Denmark.