Picture: Roger Bertemes, Mutation... mutation, 1979 © Les 2 Musées de la Ville de Luxembourg, Christof Weber, 2CW sàrl, Luxembourg and Studio Rémi Villaggi, Rémi Villaggi (Metz)

Villa Vauban welcomed us once again to view the breadth of its collection, this time inviting us to explore the rich landscape of 20th-century Luxembourgish art. Welcome to the Villa! Luxembourgish 20th-century art is neither a linear survey nor an attempt to define a national style. Instead, curator Gabriele D. Grawe offers a deliberately eclectic and perceptive journey through seven decades of artistic transformation, shaped by modernist ambition, international influence, and the gradual diversification of the country’s cultural landscape.

Considering the curatorial approach, Grawe noted in her conversation with Culture.lu: “As a curator in a municipal art museum, you don’t work alone. We are a team. A team that contributes many ideas and suggestions to the exhibition program. That was also the case with this exhibition. This opens a wide range of possibilities for shaping the content of an exhibition. The most difficult challenge is undoubtedly having the courage to risk leaving gaps. This in turn opens new combinations of artworks that we want to exhibit, allowing us to combine themes and styles that we would not have exhibited under different premises or conditions.”

Curator Gabriele D. Grawe’s selection of 76 works by 19 artists, drawn from the museum’s historic holdings, recent acquisitions, and donations, highlights its ongoing commitment to collecting and preserving Luxembourg’s artistic heritage. Grawe notes that the exhibition was prompted by the recent acquisitions and donations of 20th-century works, emphasizing the intention “to show how these new pieces integrate into the existing collection and create a new point of focus within the city’s artistic heritage.”

The journey begins with the figures who helped to reshape the local art scene during the interwar period. The Secessionists – Joseph Kutter (1894–1941), Harry Rabinger (1895–1966), Jean Schaack (1895–1959) and Nico Klopp (1894–1930) – appear not simply as pioneers, but as strikingly individual voices. Kutter’s still lifes reveal the early emergence of his Expressionist style, while Rabinger’s Chiemsee (1917) and Été testify to his youthful engagement with Impressionism. Schaack’s views of Calvi and Saint-Paul-de-Vence reflect his fluid movement between realism and abstraction, and Klopp’s compact Martigues scene demonstrates his vibrant Post-Impressionist dynamism. Alongside the better-known Secessionists, Ernest Wurth (1901–1976) is an important, yet often overlooked, figure in early twentieth-century Luxembourgish art. He developed a modern style characterized by rapid, energetic brushwork and a keen awareness of atmosphere.

Among the early modernists, Adrienne Baudoin-d’Huart (1892–1992) is a notable counterpart to her male contemporaries. Her seascapes, stripped of anecdote and rendered with striking modern simplicity, communicate a sensitivity to atmosphere and tonal harmony. Meanwhile, her still lifes confirm her as one of the earliest women artists in Luxembourg to develop an independent, modern style.

The post-war decades saw a decisive turn towards abstraction. Among other pieces, Henri Dillenburg (1926–2020) is represented by Les petits chasseurs (1971), in which signs, symbols and luminous color fields come together to create a visual language that cannot be interpreted in a fixed way. The exhibition also features Moritz Ney (1892–1973), whose post-war work is less well-known today. His compositions, characterized by sharp contours, symbolic restraint and a keen structural sensibility, bridge figuration and early abstraction. Together, Dillenburg and Ney demonstrate how Luxembourgish artists engaged with Europe’s evolving non-figurative movements while maintaining their own unique styles.

Nico Thurm (born 1938) contributes two early works in which the dissolution of form reflects the era’s preoccupation with movement and psychological fragmentation. His large-format Les femmes (1961) is reminiscent of chronophotography, while Tristesse (1959) showcases the emotive power of abstraction that stems from figural studies.

Two artists have a particularly strong presence: Wil Lofy (1937–2021) and Roger Bertemes (1927–2014). Lofy’s extraordinary body of work on paper conjures up a surreal world of hybrid beings, totemic silhouettes, and cryptic symbols, revealing his fascination with ethnographic forms and global visual traditions. Bertemes, a key figure in the second generation of Luxembourgish non-figurative artists, is represented by a body of work that balances emotional warmth with structural rigor.

An important narrative thread in this exhibition is the increasing visibility of women artists from the mid-century onward. As Grawe explains, this focus emerged organically: “The starting point was a donation of works by Adrienne Baudoin-d’Huart. The artist fell into oblivion, even though she worked in the circle of the Secessionists and was also a member of the Cercle artistique de Luxembourg (CAL). She was a very modern artist for her time.” Grawe notes that Baudoin-d’Huart’s trajectory is emblematic of a broader pattern: “She shares her artistic fate with many female artists who began their careers in the second half of the 20th century. They often remain in the shadow of their male colleagues or even in the shadow of their famous fathers, who were painters themselves, as in the case of Adrienne Baudoin-d’Huart, Triny Beckius or Annette Weiwers-Probst, for example.” 

Jacqueline Hentges (1924–1969), Coryse Kieffer (1928–2000) and Triny Beckius (1942–2023) together demonstrate how Luxembourg’s artistic landscape slowly but assuredly expanded to include new voices and perspectives. Hentges’ Cézanne-inflected cubism, Kieffer’s bright, flattened domestic still lifes and Beckius’ architecturally structured Pont sur la Seine (1965) each contribute to a reframing of the national narrative – one in which women are agents of innovation rather than marginal participants.

The exhibition’s concluding chapter traces artistic developments into the 1990s and early 2000s, showcasing experimentation with mixed media and conceptual approaches. Marie-Paule Feiereisen (born 1955), Annette Weiwers-Probst (born 1948) and Renée Oberlinkels (born 1956) expand the graphic and painterly languages of the period through their use of layered constructions and tactile surfaces. Meanwhile, Pit Nicolas (born 1939) demonstrates sculptural innovation, with pieces that exemplify the increasingly hybrid and materially adventurous tendencies of late twentieth-century Luxembourgish art. The section concludes with Bettina Scholl-Sabbatini (born 1942) and her bronze Oiseau Maya (2003), a Janus-like form drawing on mythological and Mesoamerican archetypes.

What distinguishes Bienvenue à la Villa! (3) from more encyclopedic surveys is its refusal to be exhaustive. Rather than providing a catalogue of ‘major’ names, it offers a series of encounters: between artists and movements, between Luxembourg and the wider world, and between the museum’s historic mission and its current responsibility to preserve and illuminate its collections. Reflecting on this role, Grawe emphasizes the museum’s proactive stance in shaping, rather than merely safeguarding, the country’s artistic heritage. As she puts it, “We make a modest contribution, I hope. And we take small steps in doing so. In my work as a curator, questions are more important to me than answers. I personally find it important to break down entrenched structures and judgements, to surprise our audience, to offer a new perspective on the seemingly familiar. We don’t have to retell (art) stories, but rather we can use our exhibitions and catalogues to create new connections between art and society and reveal new narratives. All you have to do is to look...” 

Open to visitors until 17 May 2026, this quietly ambitious exhibition allows ample time for reflection and repeat visits. Honoring the multiplicity of twentieth-century Luxembourgish art, it encourages viewers to experience its richness through moments of contrast, resonance, and rediscovery.

Bienvenue à la Villa ! (3) 20th century Luxembourg art, until 17.05.2026, villavauban.lu