Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1898-1962), an artist associated with many contemporary greats, and Ilse Leda (1906-1981), a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer, met at a time when the international avant-garde of constructive, non-representational abstraction and thus of new approaches to photography, film and dance was arriving in Hanover. Both were deeply impressed by the grand utopia of a world improved by clarity of design and beauty. They adopted these principles for themselves – also as an expression of their ideas and work – through the times of upheaval, their emigration to Amsterdam, and their arrival at a very personal art of formal reduction and brilliant colours, lightness and enduring humanity. Sensitive texts and impressive contemporary photographs reveal the couple’s respectful coexistence: on an equal footing, supporting and inspiring each other. Dancing images and artistic dance – in conjunction with clear aesthetics in both art and life.

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• Publication to mark Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart’s 125^th birthday
• New evaluation and recognition of dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer Ilse Leda
• The lives of two artists in photos from the 1920s/1930s taken by Lázló Moholy-Nagy (including the discovery and fresh attribution of three previously anonymous photos), Hugo Erfurth, Lore Feininger, Albert Renger-Patzsch. Kurt Schwitters, Käte Steinitz, Paul Citroen, Theo van Doesburg etc.
• Exhibition: Museum Wiesbaden, September 26, 2025 to February 8, 2026

With a preface by Linus Bruhin and Andreas Henning, with contributions by Arta Valstar-Verhoff and Roman Zieglgänsberger as well as a biography of Ilse Leda and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart