📚 Art historian Stefanie Alber presents the artistic work of artist Ida Kerkovius and talks to author Susanne Kerkovius about her book ‘Ida – ein Leben für die Kunst’ (Ida – a life dedicated to art).
📅 Friday, 10 October, 5:30 PM
🎟️ Registration fee: 2 EUR, register here
🗣️ Event in German with simultaneous interpretation into Latvian
This conversation will be conducted in German and translated into Latvian.
In her book Ida – ein Leben für die Kunst (Ida – A Life Devoted to Art), published in 2025, Susanne Kerkovius traces the life and artistic work of Ida Kerkovius and describes the artistic connections within the Kerkovius family. In doing so, she never fails to highlight the work of this visionary, which rewrites the history of form and colour.
Ida Kerkovius was born in 1879 in Riga and died in 1970 in Stuttgart, where she spent a large part of her life. Her teacher was Adolf Hölzel, who famously said: “She does my classes, but strangely, she does quite other things.” This characterises the entire oeuvre of Ida Kerkovius, which is highly innovative. A high point was her time at the Bauhaus between 1920 and 1923, where she learned geometrical strategies and further developed Hölzel’s approach
In the book
In this biographical novel, Susanne Kerkovius recounts the life of painter Ida Kerkovius (1869–1971), one of the most important painters of classical modernism. Her path as a freelance artist led the young woman, who grew up in a privileged Baltic German landowning family, away from her beloved homeland, which initially still belonged to the Russian Empire, first to Dachau to the open-air painting school of the painting pioneer Adolf Hölzel and then, as his master student, to the academy in Stuttgart. There she worked with Adolf Hölzel, Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer, Johannes Itten and others on the development of modern painting. She attended the weaving class at the Bauhaus and developed her own carpet weaving art, befriending Paul Klee. She remained close to her family of seven brothers and three sisters, even though Ida’s decision not to lead a conventional life as a wife and mother was not always understood. Revolution, war, resettlement and a new beginning after the Second World War demanded many sacrifices from the family, and in the end, their Baltic homeland was lost forever – a place that had been an important source of inspiration for Ida.
With great inner strength, the artist survived the Nazi era in Stuttgart, despite being banned from painting and exhibiting her work. It was only in the last decades of her life that she received recognition and was able to make a good living from her work. Susanne Kerkovius, wife of a grandnephew of Ida Kerkovius, allows readers to share in the life of a pioneer of modern painting through lively dialogues, inner monologues, concise explanations of contemporary history and colourful details from the Baltic German cosmos.
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