Bert Gallery

The American Realist and the German Modernist:

Grace Albee (1890 – 1985) & Margarete Koehler-Bittkow (1887 – 1964)

One would think that two women artists born three years apart would share a similar visual lexicon in their art careers. Albee and Koehler-Bittkow offer a dramatic contrast to the complexity of image making ripping through the art world in the 1930’s.

Albee, an American perfecting the technique of wood engraving, generated images of rural America while Koehler-Bittkow gouged out vigorous woodblock images of the German landscape and nature.

This small pocket exhibit explores the “virtuoso craftsmanship” of Albee and the “frank and riveting aesthetic” of Koehler-Bittkow. Each woman charting very different artistic paths within the same time period.