Group of 48, 1969-70

Eva Aeppli

Narrator: Eva Aeppli was a self-taught artist who became an important source of inspiration for later generations of artists who worked in textiles.

In her sculptures, Aeppli used a craft she learned making marionettes to meet the household needs. Aeppli made portraits of people close to her, but also more abstract figures, and groups of figures, of which this is the largest.

These sculptures emerged as extensions of her paintings in which skeletal figures often filled the canvases in large groups. The anonymous figures in “Group of 48” seem forever stuck in muted screams, unable to escape from their traumas. Stitches run across their skins of silk, like scars. Aeppli often returned to the horrific crimes committed during the wars of the 20th century and the suffering they created as a starting point for her work.

Aeppli’s first museum exhibition took place at Moderna Museet in 1968. The artist became good friends with director Pontus Hultén who was also good friends with her ex-husband artist Jean Tinguely and his wife Niki de Saint Phalle. Through the four, a large number of important sculptures, paintings, and works on paper were donated to the Moderna Museet collection.