In the history-scented streets of Berlin, Haus am Lützowplatz (HaL) invites us into the most intimate and shattering layers of memory. British painter and filmmaker Barbara Loftus’s exhibition Eine Enterbung (A Disinheritance), which she has been meticulously weaving together since 1994, is set to open its doors on March 27. This is not merely an art exhibition; it is a visual act of atonement for a family tragedy that stretches from the grand apartments of Berlin-Schöneberg to the darkness of Auschwitz — the story of a mother, Hildegard, who chose silence until the age of 79.
Loftus transforms the fragmented memories her mother only began to share in old age into a concrete practice of remembrance through archival research, oil paintings, and documentary film. Using the technique of reconstruction, the artist rebuilds the collapse of upper-middle-class life at Keithstraße 14 (formerly Lutherstraße 51) under hyperinflation, as well as the systematic exclusion and annihilation of Jewish society after 1933. The fact that the exhibition building itself was in Jewish ownership until 1938 adds a haunting and profoundly meaningful layer to the connection between the works and the space.
Barbara Loftus proves that painting is not merely an aesthetic endeavor, but one of the most powerful ways to reclaim a lost identity. Artist talks and curator-guided tours scheduled throughout the exhibition offer unique opportunities to understand Loftus’s archive-based artistic methodology.
Dates: March 27 – May 25, 2026
Opening: Thursday, March 26, 2026 at 19:00
Venue: Haus am Lützowplatz (HaL), Lützowplatz 9, Berlin
Highlights: Key works acquired by the Stadtmuseum Berlin collection in 2013/14, new paintings, the 2018 film, and a new publication.
Through this exhibition, Loftus shows that art can be both a quiet reckoning with history and a deeply personal act of reclamation — turning inherited silence into a powerful, enduring voice.
