As early as 1961, Hanna Bekker vom Rath exhibited the French painter Hélène de Beauvoir (1910-2001) - making her the first gallery in Germany to do so. Paintings by the artist are now in the Musée de la Moderne, Paris, and museums in Pittsburgh, Regensburg, Strasbourg and Lausanne.

Hélène de Beauvoir began her artistic training at the end of the 1920s at the Paris art academies Colarossi, Grande Chaumière, Académie Scandinave and the École d'Art et Publicité. At the time, she belonged to the circle around her sister Simone and Jean-Paul Sartre. Her sister, who was two years older and had a permanent job as a teacher, paid for her studio. In return, Hélène typed Simone's and Jean-Paul Sartre's manuscripts. She is often quoted as having met Picasso, who praised the "independence" of her painting when he visited her first solo exhibition at the Bonjean Gallery in Paris in 1936. Early trips took her to Spain and to the major art collections in Italy. In 1942, Hélène married the cultural attaché Lionel de Roulet, a former student of Sartre's whom she had met in 1933. From then on, she led a "bourgeois" life with him, which earned her critical comments from her sister. This was followed by moves to Vienna, Belgrade, Casablanca, Milan and, via Paris, finally to Goxwiller in Alsace in 1963, where she lived until her death. She exhibited worldwide in the 1970s, including in Tokyo, Boston and New York. In 1983, she gave a lecture in Philadelphia on "The role of women in society using the example of the female painter". Until 1983, she was president of the Flora Tristan Center for abused women and young people, which was founded in 1978.

Hélène de Beauvoir, who said that she was a feminist long before her sister, was committed to women's rights, social discrimination and environmental issues. This also provided her with motifs for her paintings. She also created landscapes, which are mostly animated by objects or people, but also graphic series such as a series of woodcuts on Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant" in 1928. In her work, the artist engaged with the art movements of the 20th century, with cubism and abstraction, with the orphism founded by Robert Delaunay, whose circular forms dissolve into crystalline facets of the pictorial inventory in Beauvoir's work. The interplay of different painting styles in the pictures of the late sixties and seventies seems surprisingly topical today.

Exhibitions (selection)

1935
Galerie de Paris, Paris
1936
Bonjean Gallery, Paris
1942
National Museum, Porto
1943
House of Propaganda National, Lisbon
1945
Jeanne Castel Gallery, Paris
1948
Galerie Brateau, Paris
1951
Gallery 55: H. de Beauvoir au Maroc, Paris
1952
Librairie-Galerie Le Fanal, Paris
1953
Bergamini Gallery, Milan
Bussola Gallery: Les Mondines, Turin
1955
"Les Mondines", Galerie Greuze and Galerie Millione, Paris
Galleria del Miliene, Milan
1956
Greuze Gallery, Paris
1957
Gallery Synthèse, Paris
Gallery Millione, Milan
Gallery Numero; Florence
Galleria del Cavallino; Venice
Kunstkabinett Wirnitzer, Berlin
Institute Français, Mainz
1960
Gallery Synthèse, Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris
1961
Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt am Main
1963
Variations sur Venice, Galerie Synthese, Paris
1967
Images, Galerie Nouvelles, The Hague
Kieffer Gallery, Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris
Tandwerlin Gallery, Strasbourg
1968
Einaudi Gallery, Milan
Gallery Die Insel, Hamburg
Nanteshi Gallery, Tokyo
1969
Le joli mois de mai, Winter Garden of the Moulin Rouge, Paris
Studio Hermes, Rome
1970
Nanteshi Gallery, Tokyo
1971
Salon 71 of the Ward Nasse Gallery, Boston
Gallery Die Treppe, Lahr
New Side Art Gallery, Amsterdam
1972
Salon of the Ward Nasse Gallery, New York
Gallery Die Treppe, Lahr
Gallery Magdalena Sothmann, Amsterdam
Gallery "Delle Imagine Nuove", Milan
1973
Salon of the Ward Nasse Gallery; New York
Hèrmes Gallery, Rome
Gallery Magdalena Sothmann, Amsterdam
1974
Ward Nasse Gallery, New York
Gallery Montjoie, Brussels
1975
Retrospective, Palais de la Culture, Brest
1976
Musée d'Art Moderne, Lausanne
Ward Nasse Lincoln, New York
1977
Paris, Galerie des Futurs, Paris
Ward Nasse Gallery, New York
1978
Galerie des Futurs, Paris
1979
Ward Nasse Gallery, New York
1980
Ward Nasse Gallery, New York
1981
Instituto Italiano: Méditations sur Venise, Strasbourg
1982
Gallery La Passerelle, Paris
1983
Hammer Gallery, Weiden
Callart Gallery, Geneva
1984
Calart Gallery, Geneva
Falsted Gallery, Copenhagen
Galeria d'Arte, Arcola
1985
Center Audiovisuel, Paris
1986
Ministry of Women's Rights, Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne, Lausanne
University of San Francisco, San Francisco
Gallery Pospieszczyik and Gallery Hammer, Regensburg
1987
Toninelli Gallery, Madrid
1988
Ward Nasse Gallery, New York
1989
Galería de Arte Orfila, Madrid
1990
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
1991
Institut Français, Paris
Institut Français, Brussels
1993
Pre Saint Gilles, Brussels
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
Saint-Gilles Town Hall, Brussels
1994
French Cultural Institute, Munich
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
Gallery La fourmi ailée, Paris
1995
Gallery MAECENAS, Pilsen
1996
Center Culturel Calouse Gulbenkian, Paris
2001
Gallery Chantal Kenzey, Paris
2002
Museum Lapidar Infante D. Henrique, Faro
2004
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
2005
University, Galeria de Exposições da Livraria, Aveiro
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
Hotel del Ville, Goxwiller
2006
University, Galeria de Exposições da Livraria, Aveiro
2007
Municipal Gallery, Erlangen
2008
Pheasant Gallery, Berlin
Gallery Il Quadro, Aachen
Gallery Saby Lazi, Stuttgart
Hôtel du Departement, Strasbourg
2009
Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt am Main
2010
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
2011
Holy Spirit House, Nuremberg
2012
University, Aveiro
Humanist Library, Selestat
Town hall, Goxwiller
2013
Hammer Gallery, Regensburg
2014
INSTITUT FRANÇAIS, Munich
2018
Würth Art, Erstein