The exhibition Eva and the Future, organized by Werner Hofmann and Sigrun Paas at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1986, examined the image of women from the French Revolution to the second modern era. Hofmann took the title from Max Klinger's etching cycle “Eva and the Future” (1898) with its still unclear content: for him, it was a relativization of the negative religious interpretation of women and he thought he could recognize in it the artist's way out of the deadlocked character-based gender comparisons of the late 19th century.

In the show, the “counter-images” to the male protagonists of Art around 1800, Hofmann's exhibition cycle celebrated throughout Europe, were presented in numerous chapters. He wanted to show the feminine gaze as one of the important byways that led to modernism. The exhibition thus served as proof of his basic thesis of a polyfocal structure of art.

More than three decades after Hofmann's show, feminism had already experienced its third revival since 1968, and artists such as Renate Bertlmann and VALIE EXPORT were already being celebrated as role models by a young generation from 1990 onwards with their ironic, often performative or new media-based subversive content. Their introduction of kitsch and pornography into art is also currently seen as a response to the political relapse into old gender roles, which are only slowly breaking down anyway.

The small new edition of Hofmann's show is in keeping with his intention of never confirming one-sided positions in exhibitions. With a view to his enduring question of the “counter-voice” and his preference for biting wit and wordplay as well as seemingly artless strategies of kitsch, pornography and caricature, the most diverse views of historical and future Evas in art have been brought together here. Max Klinger and Adolf Frohner are joined by Maria Lassnig and VALIE EXPORT, all other positions are examples of the theme newly charged with meaning by the curators.

Curators: Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer/Elisabeth Voggeneder

Artists: Anna Artaker, Renate Bertlmann, Christa Biedermann, Eva Choung-Fux, DIE DAMEN, Carola Dertnig, VALIE EXPORT, Adolf Frohner, Fanni Futterknecht / Marianne Vlaschits, Günther Heinz, Max Klinger, Kiki Kogelnik, Maria Lassnig, Eva Schlegel, Erhard Stöbe and Bernhard Tragut.