Her sensual Nanas-buxom, colorful female figures laid the foundation for her international success beyond the art world: Niki de Saint Phalle. But the self-taught artist's creative spectrum is much broader, and her unconventional oeuvre, ranging from painting and drawing to assemblages, performances, theatre, film, and architecture, is more subversive and critical of society than is widely assumed. Based on her efforts to process her own feelings, she addressed social and political issues, critically questioning institutions and role models in ways that are as relevant today as they have ever been. The exhibition and the publication shed new light on the artist's exceptional personality and uncover the wide-ranging oeuvre of the popular outsider-that is always surprising and eccentric, emotional, dark and brutal, humorous and cheerful.

Ottilie W. Roederstein, born to German parents in Zurich in 1859, was one of the leading painters in the German-speaking world during her lifetime. She also enjoyed early recognition in Paris. As one of the few women of her time, she successfully dedicated her entire life to art and led an unconventional but respected existence in Germany together with her partner, the gynecologist Elisabeth H. Winterhalter. Although Roederstein's early work adhered to the conventions of the academy, the painter increasingly opened herself up to other currents in her more mature work and in the 1920s found her way to an austere, objective visual vocabulary. Despite her international reputation as a portraitist and painter of still lifes, Roederstein fell into oblivion almost immediately after her death in 1937. Now, after several decades, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main are presenting the first monographic show of her work, accompanied by this comprehensive catalogue. EXHIBITIONS: Zurich Art Gallery December 4, 2020–April 5, 2021 Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main May 19–September 6, 2021

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is adored worldwide as a revolutionary painter and loved for his collages, or papiers découpés, the icons of his late work. His paintings and drawings for a long time overshadowed his achievements as a sculptor. Yet his Back Series, four bas-reliefs showing a nude, created between 1908 and 1930, are widely recognised as a milestone in modern sculpture. Starting out from the naturalistic depiction, Matisse gradually transformed it to reach a radically abstracted figure. Each of the four original plaster casts represents a decisive moment of this artistic process. This transformative process has parallels in Matisse's painting and drawing. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at Kunsthaus Zürich marking the artist's 150th anniversary, this is the first book to explore the relation between metamorphosis and feedback in both main fields of the artist's work. Documents of his diverse sources of inspiration for his sculptures - photographs of nudes, examples from African and ancient art - as well as images featuring Matisse at work as sculptor, round out this volume. It is a welcome addition to any art library, highlighting the llesser known side of this modern master. Text in French.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is adored worldwide as a revolutionary painter and loved for his collages, or papiers découpés, the icons of his late work. His paintings and drawings for a long time overshadowed his achievements as a sculptor. Yet his Back Series, four bas-reliefs showing a nude, created between 1908 and 1930, are widely recognised as a milestone in modern sculpture. Starting out from the naturalistic depiction, Matisse gradually transformed it to reach a radically abstracted figure. Each of the four original plaster casts represents a decisive moment of this artistic process. This transformative process has parallels in Matisse's painting and drawing. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at Kunsthaus Zürich marking the artist's 150th anniversary, this is the first book to explore the relation between metamorphosis and feedback in both main fields of the artist's work. Documents of his diverse sources of inspiration for his sculptures - photographs of nudes, examples from African and ancient art - as well as images featuring Matisse at work as sculptor, round out this volume. It is a welcome addition to any art library, highlighting the lesser known side of this modern master.

Ottilie W. Roederstein, born to German parents in Zurich in 1859, was one of the leading painters in the German-speaking world during her lifetime. She also enjoyed early recognition in Paris. As one of the few women of her time, she successfully dedicated her entire life to art and led an unconventional but respected existence in Germany together with her partner, the gynecologist Elisabeth H. Winterhalter. Although Roederstein's early work adhered to the conventions of the academy, the painter increasingly opened herself up to other currents in her more mature work and in the 1920s found her way to an austere, objective visual vocabulary. Despite her international reputation as a portraitist and painter of still lifes, Roederstein fell into oblivion almost immediately after her death in 1937. Now, after several decades, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main are presenting the first monographic show of her work, accompanied by this comprehensive catalogue. EXHIBITIONS: Zurich Art Gallery December 4, 2020–April 5, 2021 Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main May 19–September 6, 2021

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's move from Dresden to Berlin in 1911 marked a turning point in his art. Under the influence of the most modern metropolis in Europe, during the years between 1912 and 1915 the artist created works whose exaggerated and condensed styl e could be regarded as a true metaphor for the attitude to life during the early years of the twentieth century. During this time of rapid change the capital of the German Empire promised progress and countless opportunities, but also danger and profound e xistential fear. The city was not only the centre of industry, which continued to grow unchecked, but also of increasing motorised traffic and, with three million inhabitants, it was the biggest "city of tenement blocks" in Europe. But Berlin was also the metropolis of the arts, of hedonism, prostitution and accordingly of a sexuality that could be lived to the full as never before. Berlin vibrated with challenging energy and intellectual challenges. In this melting pot of opportunities and risks Kirchner c reated pictures of breathless, existential directness which he launched unerringly at the conventions of the Wilhelminian age. The main area of focus of the publication will lie on this dialectic and the resulting tension. It will reproduce Kirchner's grea test masterpieces, and in order to demonstrate the profound changes in his style, a representative selection of his early works from Dresden will also be shown alongside the paintings, drawing s and prints from the time in Berlin.