“On Mothers” and “Linda Naeff, Matricule II.”
1 September – 14 February 2021

Linda Naeff, Matricule II.

Visiting Linda Naeff in her apartment was always an unusual experience. It was like stepping into another world. There was only a narrow pathway from the door to the kitchen and to the bed. Otherwise the room was completely filled with art. Where once there was a dining table or sofa, the furniture had long since been covered with her works before her death in 2014—like moss that extends over every stone and wall. Here Linda Naeff lived her life in art and for art.

She was born in 1926 in Bagnolet, France. Her parents lived in concubinage; her father was already married. At the time, this was a scandal that the couple had to escape. The Second World War forced them to return to Switzerland. The family fell apart, and the children were raised by different relatives. Linda Naeff experienced humiliation and rape. With her husband Jo she moved to Geneva and started a family of her own. She gave birth to two daughters and lost five sons in advanced pregnancy.

Linda Naeff was multitalented. She performed in plays, revues, and wrote prose and poetry. In 1987 she began to paint and later also worked as a sculptor. She created several thousand works into old age: powerful paintings, drawings, clay sculptures that she was unable to fire without an oven, objects, collages, assemblages, boxes, and series of painted wooden boards. She combined text and images as well as poetry with objects using a wide variety of materials. Her boundless imagination knew no limits. Her restless creativity was based on her deep wounds, which are reflected in all her works. She signed her work as that child: “LM II”—“Linda, Matricule II.”—the “second-born,” as she was often called.

On Mothers

Maria Rolly was born on 29 October 1925 in Basel, where she still lives today. She spent her childhood and youth with her grandparents and an aunt. But Maria Rolly never lived with her mother. She does not know her biological father. Her later stepfather was a quiet and helpful man. In 1951 she married the Basel graphic designer Hanspeter Rolly. They had two sons. At the age of 40 she taught herself to paint.

The public quickly became aware of Maria Rolly’s seemingly naive painting. Her works found their way into galleries and collections. The artist continued to paint in a “naive” style for the next two decades. Her sixteen-part “Mütter-Zyklus” (Mothers Cycle), which the Museum im Lagerhaus received from her as a donation in 2019, was created between 1988 and 1991. Unique in its design, look and feel, this work is different from the rest of her oeuvre. It is a series of works distinguished by their uniqueness. In this series, at the age of 63 Maria Rolly deals with the mother-daughter relationship she never had. At this time, the artist’s mother was newly widowed and herself 82 years old. This situation triggered Rolly’s first conversation with her mother, who now lived alone. The artist recognizes her inability to be a mother. Rolly came to grips with this recognition by depicting sixteen mothers in large-scale pastel drawings. Each embodies different forms of being a mother, from angry to loving to Janus-headed. It is an attempt to accept her own mother and her actions and to have a belated reconciliation with her.

The Museum im Lagerhaus is presenting the “Mütter-Zyklus” in its entirety, flanked by works from the museum’s collection by Adelheid Duvanel (1936–1996), Reni Blum (1934–2003), and Berta Balzli (1920–2010).

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