Jutta Koether

Jutta Koether, a German painter, musician, theorist and critic born in Cologne in 1958, lives and works between Berlin and New York. In the early 1980s, she became involved in Cologne’s art and music scenes and wrote for Spex magazine. Painting is a central strand of her work, which she brings into relation with music, writing and performance; she also collaborates with musicians and writers. From 2010 to 2024, she taught painting and drawing at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg.

Her research focuses on the conditions of painting’s production, the politics of colour—with particular attention to red—and the impact of contemporary popular culture on visual expression. She revisits the male legacy of modernism and postmodernism and describes her project as transforming “the old canon into a counter-canon, through play and performative strategies”. This interplay between painting and reference is evident, in particular, in Nach Botticelli die Ausweidung (2007), an acrylic painting on canvas measuring approximately 435 × 489 cm, whose inscription on the reverse links it to Zwischen Zwei Toden. The work is cited in connection with Zwischen Zwei Toden, Between Two Deaths, at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe in 2007, and later with If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution, at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp in 2007–2008.

In 2018, the Museum Brandhorst in Munich and Mudam Luxembourg organised a major retrospective of her work; her solo exhibitions also include those at Museum Abteiberg in 2019 and Artium Museoa in 2022. She has also taken part in international group exhibitions and biennials, including the Whitney Biennial in New York in 2006 and 2012. Her works are held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Kunsthaus Zürich, among others. In 2025, she received the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting, awarded by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

Works recorded at auction

Kornfeld · Lot 647

Eternal Feminine & 3 Skulls (Cezanne)

Acrylic, gold pencil, synthetic resin, paper and plastic collage on canvas

Catalogue period : 2021-09-16

Published result : 8000 CHF

Hammer price, excluding fees

Estimate : CHF 10000

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Lempertz · Lot 777

Nach Botticelli die Ausweidung

Acrylic on canvas

Original catalogue wording

Nach Botticelli die Ausweidung
Acryl auf Leinwand

Auction date : 2019-11-30

Published result : 35960 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 15000

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