The Günter Grass Stiftung Bremen presents, in close collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Paris, a new exhibition devoted to one of the most singular couples of the German post-war art scene: Anna and Günter Grass. The exhibition highlights a formative period of their life, one they shared in Paris between 1956 and 1960.

It was in this city that Günter Grass, then a young writer and draughtsman from Danzig, wrote The Tin Drum, a novel that became a worldwide bestseller and a major classic of the 20th century. At the same time, Anna Grass, a Swiss dancer trained in Zurich, deepened her practice at the Studio Wacker and developed an artistic path spanning ballet, choreography and visual exploration.

The exhibition Anna & Günter Grass – The Parisian years of the artist couple offers a chance to rediscover these years of shared creativity through a selection of visual works, drawings, watercolours, manuscript excerpts, personal objects and audiovisual archival documents, drawn in particular from the Günter Grass Stiftung Bremen.

An artistic and romantic dialogue, both fertile and demanding

While Günter Grass's work, particularly through The Tin Drum, quickly gained international renown, the exhibition also shows how this fame weighed on his wife's artistic ambitions. A critical reader, Anna Grass nonetheless contributed to the genesis of several of Günter Grass's works — notably the ballets Stoffreste and Die Vogelscheuchen — while continuing her own creative work. She carved out her own path, gradually finding her place in performance art and the visual arts.

Beyond their artistic collaboration, the exhibition thus also reveals a love story: "We seemed to be inseparable and made for each other — and we were." wrote Günter Grass. These intimate words, alongside collages, letters, videos and works created together, reveal the full complexity of their relationship: a deep bond, at times confronted with the imbalances of an era in which public recognition remained unevenly distributed.