Marthe Hekimi was born Marta Szostakowska into a Jewish family in Łódź (now Poland) in 1884. Finding art teaching in her homeland too conventional, and despite family opposition, she migrated to Europe to pursue an art career, following her marriage to an Iranian diplomat, showing in Paris in 1936 and with Max Bill's Allianz group in the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1942. Hekimi continued a peripatetic lifestyle, spending long periods in Persia (Iran), which greatly influenced her work and had a diplomatic role herself, serving on the League of Nation's Council of the Equal Rights International, an interest reflected in the subjects of her art - which often deals with conflict, resolution and hope for the future - examples of which were shown at Ben Uri in 1947.
Painter, Marthe Hekimi, was born Marta Szostakowska into a Jewish family in Łódź (then part of Congress Poland, Russian Empire, now Poland) in 1884, the daughter of Dawid and Rozalja Szostakowski. She pursued an art career, at first in Paris, despite family opposition, finding the art teaching in Poland too traditional. The timing of her emigration from Polish Lands is not known precisely, but she is documented as an exhibiting artist across Europe from the mid-1930s, showing Peintures at Galerie Jeanne Bucher-Myrbor in Paris in 1936 and with Max Bill's Allianz group in the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1942, suggesting she was based in Switzerland then. After marriage to an Iranian diplomat, Abel Hassan Hekimi (b. 1887), probably in the early 1920s (their son was born in Geneva in 1926), Hekimi continued her peripatetic lifestyle, spending long periods in Persia (Iran) which greatly influenced her work, and there is evidence of her travelling from France to New York in 1947. She seems to have had a diplomatic role herself, and is recorded as serving on the League of Nation's Council of the Equal Rights International/L'Internationale pour les Droits Égaux, founded in 1930, and governed by a Bureau, Council, and General Assembly held each year at Geneva (Marthe Hekimi Vice President 1936 / Honorary Treasurer (Treasurer) 1938). This interest dovetails with the subjects in her art, which often deal with conflict, resolution and hope for the future.
During the Second World War she created a series of 'Fantasies' in pen-and-ink on paper, as well as works referencing existential concerns, with dramatic titles, including 'Fear' and 'Catastrophe'. Postwar, her work was exhibited at the Ben Uri Gallery in London in 1947 in a two-person show with Viennese Jewish artist, Sophie Korner (who had been deported and killed in 1942). She showed again with Ben Uri in 1948, 1949 and 1950, and gifted work to the collection. The accompanying catalogue from the 1947 exhibition states that Hekimi 'felt an artist of the 20th century should not copy nature and in order to express inner reality she worked with more or less abstract forms'. Her paintings and drawings are expressive and highly imaginative, mixing elements of Surrealism and fantasy, often combining people and animals.
Posthumously, Hekimi's work and career has garnered increasing interest both in the UK and in her native Poland, as interest in under researched women artists grows, and as Poland seeks to reclaim its artistic heritage in exile. In 2018 her work was included in Ben Uri's virtual exhibition Liberators: 12 extraordinary women artists from the Ben Uri Collection. Marthe Hekimi is believed to have died in Tehran, Iran, her date of death as yet unconfirmed. In the UK public domain her work is represented in the Ben Uri Collection. We are grateful to the Jewish Historical Institute, Poland (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny) for assistance with biographical details for this entry.
Marthe Hekimi in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Marthe Hekimi]
Publications related to [Marthe Hekimi] in the Ben Uri Library