A poster/publication "EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE I INVITATION TO RESEARCH" shows the only group photo that can be found in the archive of the Austrian Association of Woman Artists (VBKÖ). It depicts twenty members of the VBKÖ from the 1930s. The Association was founded in 1910 in Vienna.

Text (translated from German) of the poster/publication on the top to the left:

"This picture shows the only group photo of the members of the Vereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs (VBKOE) that can be found in the archive of the Association. Only two persons are known. Recognisable in the first row, second from the left, is Louise Fraenkel-Hahn and in the second row, fourth from the right, is Helene Krauss. Louise Fraenkel-Hahn, who was Jewish, was president of the Association from 1923-1938 and emigrated to Paris in 1939, where she died in the same year. The baroness and co-founder of the Association Helene Krauss was president from 1916-23, secretary from 1929-44 and an active supporter of National Socialism."

Text (translated from German) of the poster/publication on the top to the right:

"The photograph was taken by the photographer J. Marek. The date of the photo shoot is not known. The Findbuch of the archive of the VBKOE, published in 2004, indicates that the photo was taken around 1925. In the Festschrift of the 100th anniversary of the Association, Rudolfine Lackner (1998-2011 president of the VBKOE) titled the image with 'VBKOE- Board of the 1930s'".

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Die Posterpublikation „EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE" zeigt das einzige Gruppenfoto der Vereinigung der bildenen Künstlerinnen* Österreichs (VBKOE), das im Archiv der Vereinigung zu finden ist. Es sind zwanzig Mitglider der 1930er Jahre der VBKÖ zu sehen. Die Vereinigung wurde 1910 in Wien gegründet.

Text der Posterpublikation (links oben):

„Diese Abbildung zeigt das einzige Gruppenfoto der Mitglieder der der Vereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs (VBKOE) das im Archiv der Vereinigung zu finden ist. Es sind nur zwei Personen bekannt. In der ersten Reihe, die Zweite von links ist Louise Fraenkel-Hahn und in der zweiten Reihe, die Vierte von rechts, ist Helene Krauss erkennbar. Die Jüdin Louise Fraenkel-Hahn war von 1923-1938 Präsidentin der Vereinigung und emigrierte 1939 nach Paris, wo sie im selben Jahr verstarb. Die Baronin und Mitgründerin der Vereinigung Helene Krauss war von 1916-23 Präsidentin, von 1929-44 Schriftführerin und eine aktive Anhängerin des Nationalsozialismus."

Text der Posterpublikation (rechts oben):

„Das Foto wurde von dem Fotographen J. Marek aufgenommen. Das Datum der Aufnhame ist nicht bekannt. Im dem 2004 publizierten Findbuch des Archivs der VBKOE wird angegeben, dass das Bild um 1925 aufgenommen wurde. In der Festschrift zum 100-jährigen Jubliäum betitelt Rudolfine Lackner (1998-2011 Präsidentin der VBKOE) das Bild mit „VBKOE-Vorstand der 1930er Jahre".

Am 4.11.2021 erhielt die VBKÖ folgende Email:

„Betreff: EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE

Liebe VBKÖ,

auf dem in Ihrem Archiv befindlichen Gruppenfoto (EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE / INVITATION TO INVESTIGATE | Sekretariat für Geister Archiv-politiken und Lücken (skgal.org)) von Mitgliedern der VBKÖ ist mir bei Recherchen zu Künstlerinnen in Wien um 1900, die Identifikation einer Künstlerin Ihrer Vereinigung gelungen. Es handelt sich um Marietta Peyfuss 1868-1945 (siehe Anhang). Zum Vergleich sende ich Ihnen noch weitere Foto der Künstlerin aus Privatbesitz. Ich hoffe Ihnen mit diesen Infos geholfen zu haben.

Mit besten Grüßen

Michael Hölters

Sammlung Metall und Wiener-Werkstätte-Archiv Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstatte Archive

MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst | Museum of Applied Arts Stubenring 5 1010 Wien | Vienna Austria T +43 1 711 36-240"

In der dritten Reihe, die Dritte von links, ist Mariette Peyfuss.

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Translation of the email that the VBKÖ received on 4.11.2021:

"Subject: INVITATION TO RESEARCH

Dear VBKÖ,

While I researched on women artists in Vienna around 1900, I succeeded in identifying an artist of your Association in the group photo of members of the VBKÖ (EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE / INVITATION TO INVESTIGATE | Sekretariat für Geister Archiv-politiken und Lücken (skgal.org)), which is in your archive. It shows Marietta Peyfuss 1868-1945 (see attachment). For comparison, I am sending you another photo of the artist from a private collection. I hope this information is helpful to you.

With best regards,

Michael Hölters

Sammlung Metall und Wiener-Werkstätte-Archiv Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstatte Archive

MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst | Museum of Applied Arts Stubenring 5 1010 Wien | Vienna Austria T +43 1 711 36-240"

In the third row, third from the left, is Mariette Peyfuss.

Transcript of an audio recording from a hybrid workshop with DAAP at the Women's Art Library, 21 July 2023. Dr Althea Greenan, curator of the Women's Art Library, draws out material connections between Bella Milroy's publication 'File Under Female' with the White Pube; and collective, SKGAL (with Nina Hoechtl & Julia Wieger)'s poster publication, EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE / INVITATION TO RESEARCH

Althea: Bella. What’s kind of interesting, because we have Nina Hoechtl in the room, is that the poster format that we came up with? Nina's ‘EINLADUNG ZUR RECHERCHE’ is a glorious combination of artist intervention and publication, you know, very, very thin. It's only on one side, and it's almost see through, but it's one of the most powerful kind of artist publications that we have in the whole collection. There’s so much that has come in between me saying, how about something like this?

Bella: Oh my goodness, yeah. And it was such a powerful piece, the way it starts. And again the thinness was so exciting to play with and I was really excited by that exploration throughout my work at the archive was again this kind of the different elasticity of that space being something … that everything was kind of laminated, this thinness that then became bigness. And that piece was wonderful and very inspirational to how the format of this came about. And I also should mention that as part of the project I worked with CILIP, the Chartered Institute for Library Professionals and also Derbyshire Libraries in distributing the catalogue. And so it was distributed as a PDF, which I'd be really interested to know your thoughts in terms of the digital archiving. It was distributed as a PDF across all libraries in England, and then as a hard copy across all libraries in Derbyshire, and again sometimes it was displayed like this and other times it was displayed and in the kind of poster format as well. So yeah that was a totally inspirational piece in how this came about. So yes, thank you so much Althea for reminding me of that.

Jessa: I love how there was like this demonstration [holding items up to the camera for online workshop participants to see] of your poster, Nina's poster, Symrath’s publication. It's such a beautiful example of how these works are not happening in a silo, like they're related, and they're connected and, draw from each other.

Nina: Just to jump in, as Althea mentioned my name. I mean, the poster you showed, Althea, I did it together with Julia Wieger as the Secretariat for Ghosts, Archival Politics, and Gaps. And that's a working group that started in the Austrian Association of Women Artists in Vienna that was founded in 1910. And this is one of the only group photos. So the association is still active. I'm still a member. Back then I was a board member. But yes, it's this long, long history, a very complex history as it's still alive. You can imagine it has also collaborated with the Nazi power in the Nazi years in Austria, also what was happening between 1938 and 1945.

I'm not going there into the detail, but this photo, it is actually not clear when it was taken. And the interesting thing of this group photo is that not all of the women artists we can identify, but we can identify two. And there is one that was the Jewish president that had to go into exile to Paris and died there. And her vice president, Helene Krauss, who was a Nazi. So also these interesting histories that actually happened that these two were collaborating before, but then Helene Krauss kept in power in the Association and the other one died because of the political situation.

And then for us in, I think we published this poster actually to invite more people because it's saying ‘invitation to research’ on this poster. Also very hard to see. It's actually for more people to explore this complex contradictory history of such a long Women's Artist Association, and I liked a lot that you said now the thinness, the thinness of the poster but also the thinness of histories and who is telling histories.

Printed in an edition of 500, in 2012, the poster was distributed for free in the VBKÖ and in Vienna in order to call attention to both, the Association itself – its complex history and its largely unknown members – and the invitation to research further.

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In einer Stückzahl von 500 wurde die Posterpublikation 2012 zur freien Mitnahmen in der VBKÖ aufgelegt und in Wien verteilt, um sowohl auf die Vereinigung selbst – ihre komplexe Geschichte und ihre größtenteils unbekannten Mitglieder aufmerksam zu machen – als auch zu weiteren Recherchen einzuladen.