Sarah Schumann

• Name — Sarah Schumann • Birth Name — Maria Schirmer • Born — August 12, 1933 • Birthplace — Berlin, Germany • Died — July 3, 2019 • Place of death — Berlin, Germany • Movement — Surrealism, Feminism, Post-war Modernism • Spouse — Hans Brockstedt (married 1951–1960) • Partner — Silvia Bovenschen (1970s–2017) • Website — https: www.sarah-schumann.org/en/

Schumann was born as Maria Schirmer to sculptors Dora and Kilian Schirmer in Berlin. As a war refugee of World War II, she grew up in poverty and was malnourished, which led to health problems in her adulthood. She was self-taught in art out of necessity, as her parents could not afford to pay tuition for an art academy, but they nurtured her talent in their studio. Her mother's remarriage to a Nazi Party paramilitary Mann led Schumann to leave home at 15, beginning an apprenticeship in Hamburg. She met gallerist Hans Brockstedt, who took her on his travels to introduce her to the wider arts scene, and she later married him at 18. During the 1950s, she traveled through Europe with her then-husband Hans Brockstedt, visiting museums and collections, where she exhibited art under the name Maria Brockstedt. After separating from her husband, she lived in London from 1960 to 1963, where she became intimately familiar with the London art scene, and adopted the name Sarah Schumann. In London, she exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) where she sold work successfully; in 1963, due to the cost of living, she moved to the Villa Engadina in Piedmont, Italy. Schumann lived in Charlottenburg, Berlin with her partner Silvia Bovenschen until Bovenschen's death in 2019.

• Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, Berlin • Berlinische Galerie, Berlin • Morsbroich Museum, Leverkusen • Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg • New Berlin Art Association (nbk), Berlin

• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, US

• 1978: Harun Farocki: A Picture of Sarah Schumann • 2000: Renate Sami: Sarah Schumann paints a picture • 2012: Michaela Melián: Silvia Bovenschen and Sarah Schumann • 2015: Lone Thau: From Darkness to Light • 2019: Bettina Böttinger: Sarah Schumann in conversation with Bettina Böttinger, produced by VAN HAM Art Estate