Anna-Eva Bergman & Hans Hartung – And nothing will separate us
6/5/2025—10/13/2025, Kunsthalle Prague, Gallery 1 & 2
When the sea looks at the stars. When two souls find each other and never let go. When love and creation are not two things, but one single breath. This is the story of Anna-Eva and Hans.
They met in Paris in 1929. They married. Divorced. And married again. They simply couldn't be without each other. Their homes – Menorca, Paris, and Antibes (which I happen to love just as much as they did) – were not just places to live, but living studios, designed according to their vision, aesthetic sensibility, and love for the golden ratio.
They were different, but equal. They created together, lived together, grew together. They influenced, inspired, and supported each other – not as competitors, but as equal creators. Their relationship with nature and the universe was reflected in their work. It wasn't about depicting nature – but becoming part of it. Merging.
She – Anna-Eva – used gold and silver leaf, painted and drew with both delicacy and strength. He – Hans – spun it into expressionism and abstraction. And yet, or perhaps because of this, they formed one whole. They even drew in the sand on the beach. Read books waist-deep in water. Portrayed each other. And looked at each other through their works.
They gave each other paintings as gifts – the recipient could choose what spoke to them. This was their way of expressing respect. Their work was a dialogue – about closeness and distance, about matter and soul.
Together they lived a life full of love, artistic passion, travels, encounters, but also separation and pain. They loved each other so intensely that they died shortly after each other. Because when the other disappears, there's no one left to paint for.
I'm thrilled about this exhibition. Honestly – I would have taken half the house home. And at the same time, I would return again and again. Because this isn't just an exhibition of paintings. It's an exhibition of life.
What will you see there?
300 exhibits: paintings, sketches, archival photographs, objects from their studios, letters, gifts, painted pebbles. And also snapshots of their shared life, from travels, from intimacy.
In 1931, they visited Prague together – they celebrated Eva's 21st birthday there. Hans gave her a necklace that she wore her entire life. So yes – that the exhibition takes place in Prague is no coincidence. It's a circle closing.
Why you must go there?
Because this is an exceptional, deep, poetic exhibition.
About two people who loved each other through art.
About how when you create with your heart, nothing can separate you.
About how love is the greatest work of art.
And because it will remind you that everything is possible
when you love and create at the same time.