Reparative Memory and the Visibility of Roma Subjectivity in Otto Mueller’s ‘Gypsy’ Depictions – Anger, Pride, and Shame

Abstract

This article offers a critical reflection by Romani intellectuals on their joint engagement with the Otto Mueller exhibition at the
LWL Museum of Art and Culture in Münster (2024–2025). Moving beyond an art-historical experience, the exhibition prompted a
profound confrontation with colonial memories and stereotypical representations of Romani bodies, evoking ambivalent emotions
such as anger, hope, pride, and shame Positioned as German and Hungarian Romani scholars, the authors analyse Mueller’s work
through a transnational and intersectional lens that foregrounds lived experience, collective memory, and epistemic responsibility.
At the same time, it is important to consider Mueller’s position and function within German Expressionism – connected to Die
Brücke from 1910, later professor at the State Academy in Breslau (1919–1930), and a key author of the “bathers” pictorial formula;
the subsequent denunciation and confiscation of works in the Munich “Degenerate Art” exhibition of 1937 (posthumously) further
underscores the visibility of his modern visual language in the period’s cultural discourse. The authors emphasise the necessity of visibility as subjectivity, shifting from being objectified to asserting agency in knowledge production and cultural representation. They highlight the limitations of counter-narratives within the exhibition and argue for deeper institutional reforms, including active participation of Romani scholars in curatorial practices. Drawing on feminist epistemologies and critical memory studies, the article articulates reparative memory culture as a transformative practice that challenges hegemonic narratives and centres Romani voices. Dialoguing with artworks by Tamás Péli and Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, it illustrates how Romani art creates reparative spaces of memory and dignity, contesting historical erasures. Ultimately, the article advocates for a decolonial and participatory memory politics that recognises Roma as knowledge producers and co-creators of culture, thus reshaping European art, memory, and scholarship without seeking to destroy them.