Frankfurts Kunsthalle Portikus unveils Marie Vassilieffs lost avant-garde legacy with 19 peers

Frankfurt’s Kunsthalle Portikus spotlights Marie Vassilieff in major exhibition celebrating 20 overlooked women artists of the avant-garde.

The Kunsthalle Portikus in Frankfurt is set to unveil *"20 Künstlerinnen: Marie Vassilieff und das Kunstwerk der Moderne"*, a landmark exhibition dedicated to the Russian-French artist Marie Vassilieff and 19 of her contemporaries, curators announced today. The show, opening on 15 June 2026, marks the first comprehensive institutional presentation of Vassilieff’s work in Germany, positioning her as a central figure in the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century.

Vassilieff, a painter, sculptor, and founder of the *Académie Vassilieff* in Montparnasse, will be represented by 12 newly restored works, including her iconic 1914 portrait of Amedeo Modigliani and a rare 1917 canvas depicting her legendary *Cantine des Artistes*—a hub for artists like Picasso, Chagall, and Léger. The exhibition draws from a recent record-breaking auction in Paris last month, where Vassilieff’s *"La Danseuse"* sold for €1.2 million, tripling pre-sale estimates and cementing her market revival .

Alongside Vassilieff, the show features works by Sonia Delaunay, Alexandra Exter, and Natalia Goncharova, among others, all active in Paris between 1905 and 1930. Curators emphasize the exhibition’s focus on "collaborative networks"—highlighting how these artists, often overshadowed by their male peers, shaped modernism through shared studios, salons, and political activism. A reconstructed model of Vassilieff’s cantine, based on archival photographs, will anchor the display, offering visitors a tactile glimpse into the era’s social fabric.

The Kunsthalle Portikus, known for its experimental programming, secured loans from the Centre Pompidou, the Tretyakov Gallery, and private collections in Moscow and New York. The exhibition’s timing aligns with a broader reassessment of women in modern art, following recent retrospectives of Hilma af Klint and Suzanne Valadon at major European institutions.

*"Vassilieff’s work is a missing link,"* said Portikus director Daniel Birnbaum in a statement. *"She wasn’t just a witness to modernism—she was its architect, creating spaces where art, politics, and daily life intersected."* The show will run until 12 October 2026, accompanied by a symposium on 18 September featuring scholars from the Louvre and the Hermitage.

Background: Marie Vassilieff (1884–1957) fled Russia in 1905, settling in Paris where she became a fixture of the *École de Paris*. Her cantine, located at 21 Avenue du Maine, served as a refuge during World War I, offering meals to artists in exchange for artworks—a practice that inadvertently preserved hundreds of now-priceless sketches. Despite her influence, Vassilieff’s oeuvre was largely forgotten after her death, until feminist art historians began revisiting her legacy in the 1990s. This exhibition, the first to pair her with a cohort of peers, aims to "rewrite the canon," according to the curatorial team.