Ayeye!
Ruth Baumgarte Meets Iwalewahaus

For the first time, the Iwalewahaus brings selected works from its internationally significant collection into direct dialogue with the œuvre of Ruth Baumgarte.

Works of Classical Modernism and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora encounter Baumgarte’s artistic positions, whose œuvre evolved over seven decades and was profoundly shaped by more than forty journeys to the African continent.

The exhibition opens up a cross-continental dialogue between African contemporary art, European Modernism, and the multifaceted work of Ruth Baumgarte. At its centre are questions of identity, memory, cultural perception, and social reality. At the same time, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on their own experiences, fears, and emotions, as well as on hopes, visions, and personal perspectives.

Exhibition opening: June 11 2026, 05:00 p.m. 

Remarks by:
Prof. Dr. Nina Nestler
Vice President for Internationalisation,
Equal Opportunities and Diversity, University of Bayreuth
—
Sigrid Horsch-Albert, M. A.
Curator | Collection Curator
Iwalewahaus | University of Bayreuth
—
Dr. Renée Gadsden Kuratorin,
Curator, Art Historian and Author, Vienna/New York

Duration of the exhibition: June 11 - September 18, 2026

Invitation

The exhibition is dedicated to the œuvre of the artist Ruth Baumgarte (1923–2013), which evolved over more than seven decades, and for the first time places it in a multifaceted dialogue with modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.
At its centre is not merely the encounter between different geographical perspectives, but rather a shared engagement with existential questions of identity, memory, community, spirituality, and social transformation.
In this exhibition, Baumgarte’s work emerges as an open, profoundly humanist visual language — shaped by empathy, observation, and an extraordinary sensitivity towards the other.
From early drawings of the war and post-war years, through socially engaged bodies of work, to the intensely coloured compositions of her Africa Cycle, an artistic development unfolds that is sustained by inner vigilance and cultural openness.
Ruth Baumgarte’s works are brought into dialogue with significant positions in modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora — not in an illustrative manner, but dialogically: as independent voices within a vibrant, transcultural exchange.