03XX Komplexe Beziehungen. Notizen zu Biographie und Werk von Friedl Dicker-Brandeis

This article discusses the methodological approaches for writing a monograph that links the life and work of an individual engaged in the arts, using the example of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (1898–1944). It advocates for a productive interweaving of biographical construction and work-centered study, critically reflecting on the diversity of the textual, visual and material sources and their varying availability, condition, and framing. Through selected life stages and exemplary analyses of her work, the article explores the complex interrelations between the societal conditions that shaped Dicker-Brandeis’s work as a Jewish artist, female architect, and committed leftist intellectual up to her deportation, and her ways to position herself within, and at times against, these categorizations. In doing so, it brings together perspectives from critical biographical research with a reading of the politics of artistic practice.