Irma Stern

Content type
Collection

Roza van Gelderen and Hilda Purwitsky

Independent, rebellious, and eccentric, Roza van Gelderen and Hilda Purwitsky, a devoted same-sex couple, represent the “New Woman” who was coming of age in the 1920s, enjoying new freedoms of education, career, and lifestyle. World travelers, collectors, patrons of the arts, journalists, and teachers in Cape Town, South Africa, they dedicated themselves to helping Eastern European immigrant children to adapt to their new lives.

South Africa

Over time, Jewish women’s status and achievements have risen within the South African Jewish community and the wider society. White Jewish women used their historically privileged position (unprecedented for Jews) to assist those suffering from the oppressions of apartheid, notwithstanding democratization since 1994. Women have been prominent in more recent innovations and initiatives, so that even in the face of demographic decline, the community exhibits paradoxical vitality and resilience.

Irma Stern

Irma Stern was a remarkably prolific artist, holding more than a hundred solo exhibitions. It took time for Stern's espousal of modernism, color, and rhythm to find acceptance in the conservative art world of South Africa. After her death, the Irma Stern Museum, administered by the University of Cape Town, was opened.

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