Evil Flowers at the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg

Les fleurs du mal (‘The Flowers of Evil’) by Charles Baudelaire caused a sensation upon its publication in 1857: its author was promptly prosecuted and fined for ‘insulting public decency’. But its flagrant evocation of sinfulness, suffering and sexual yearning had its admirers both in the literary world – Victor Hugo described one of the poems as ‘un nouveau frisson’, a new thrill – and among artists. The Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg is a fitting venue for an exhibition about its reception; for one thing, Les fleurs du mal had a significant influence on poets such as Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé, who are associated with Symbolism – a movement whose artistic analogue is especially well represented in the museum’s collection. This show brings together 120 works, many of which were created in response to the volume: highlights include Hannah Höch’s painting Les fleurs du mal (1922/24), Albert Birkle’s Die kleinen Alten (1923) and Otto Piene’s Fleurs du mal (1969), an installation of 13 huge black silk flowers that bloom every hour amid simulated lightning and thunder (12 December–4 May 2025).

Find out more from the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg’s website.
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