Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt

ChertLüdde is honored to present In the end something begins with us, an exhibition exploring the early-career paintings of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (1932–2024), a foundational period in her artistic evolution. Spanning three decades of her work, the show examines her artistic journey from the 1960s until she stopped producing work in 1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A self-taught artist from East Germany, Wolf-Rehfeldt gained recognition for her typewriter-based concrete poetry, starting in the early 1970s. This new exhibition highlights the breadth of her practice, tracing how some of her early still life paintings, fabric studies, abstract works, and portraits influenced her practice. These artworks are complemented by preparatory drawings, collages and typewriter compositions, as well as excerpts from her diaries, poems and notes. These elements reveal her creative process and highlight recurring themes in her work, such as humanity’s complex relationship with nature and culture. Through its archival and thematic approach, In the end something begins with us celebrates Wolf-Rehfeldt’s profound contributions to art, offering a reflective homage to her enduring legacy.

In commemoration of the first anniversary of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt’s passing on February 26, 2024, the exhibition features Divided Planet (1970/2024), a public artwork displayed in the lightbox above the gallery entrance. Additionally, responses to the gallery’s Mail Art Open Call, inspired by the original typewritten artwork Divided Planet from 1970, is showcased through a special presentation in the gallery’s bookstore.

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (b. 1932, Wurzen – 2024, Berlin, Germany) is a Berlin-based artist best known for her visual poetry and mail art. Despite not having a formal artistic education, she produced paintings, pastels, drawings and what she calls “typewritings”. Works on paper made on a typewriter, her typewritings are intricate studies spanning concrete poetry, linguistics, graphic design and conceptual art – innovative hybrids of language, symbols and visual form. Although in the beginning of her practice Wolf-Rehfeldt explored semiotics and concrete poetry, she began to shift her focus in later years to abstract compositions, moving from linguistic signage to language as form and matter.

During the period of her artistic production, Wolf-Rehfeldt was simultaneously engaged with a vast network of artists, known as the Mail Art Movement. Wolf-Rehfeldt and her partner Robert Rehfeldt were pioneers within the GDR of a type of artistic exchange that allowed for the uncensored circulation of art and ideas. As works of art prone to accessible distribution, Wolf-Rehfeldt’s typewritings were often included in her correspondence with other artists.

After the fall of the Berlin wall and the death of her partner, Wolf-Rehfeldt stopped making work altogether. Her newly found geographical freedom had fundamentally altered the function of making and distributing art. In recent years, a newly invigorated interest in her work had begun to emerge. Most recently, Wolf-Rehfeldt was awarded the Gerhard Altenbourg Prize 2021 and the Hannah Höch Prize 2022.

Her work has been exhibited in venues such as DAS MINSK, Potsdam; Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; MAMCO, Geneva; Kunstverein Reutlingen; Galerie Weisser Elefant; National Gallery of Arts, Tirana; Albertinum, SKD, Dresden (with David Horvitz); Goethe, Minneapolis; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; documenta 14, Kassel; Halle 14, Leipzig; Museum für konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt; Museum Barberini, Potsdam; Kunstsaele Berlin; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin; Schloss Plüschow Museum, Plüschow; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; The Weserburg Study Centre / Museum of Modern Art Bremen.