Exhibitions

The first exhibition in which Elisabetta Keller took part was at the Biennale di Brera in 1920, where she continued to exhibit at all the subsequent editions until 1942. In 1924 she took part in the International Exhibition of the Female Portrait in the Villa Reale in Monza. She won her national recognition at the “Casa d’arte Palazzi” in Rome in March 1925, five years after her debut at Brera, with her first solo (120 exhibits). The critical consensus was unanimous in highlighting her technical abilities in framing, on the canvas, faces and expressions with considerable expertise in drawing and skillful use of pastel, sanguine, and oil. Thenceforth, she was present at the Milanese artistic rendezvouses and the most important national and international exhibitions although far, by inclination, from seeking the limelight. In 1928 she exhibited in her beloved Switzerland at the Saffa of Bern for the first Swiss exhibition of works by women. In the thirties Elisabetta was in the prime of her maturity, exemplified at one of the high points by her participation in the retrospective of her teacher, the painter Stefano Bersani, who had died in 1914. In 1930 she was one of the judges at the first Female Exposition of Decorative Art at the Sforza Castle in Milan. In Milan in 1933 she won the gold medal at the first Esposizione Sindacale delle Donne Professioniste e Artiste. She exhibited again in 1935 in a solo exhibition in Milan at the Galleria Casa d’Artisti. In 1936 she exhibited in a solo exhibition at Lausanne in Switzerland at the Galerie Paul Vallotton. In 1937, at the invitation of the International Committee of Fine Arts, she exhibited along with other women artists at Paris at the Musée du Jeu de Paume and later at the Metropolitan of New York. In 1941 she held another solo exhibition at Gallerie Nova. From 1943 to 1948 she installed a studio in Neuchatel next to her friends the Berthoud family. The Swiss exhibitions in Lausanne and Neuchâtel at the Robert Leopold Gallery in 1946 also belong to this period. In 1950 she exhibited in San Francisco in the Lucien Labaudt Gallery and returned in 1964. In Italy she held other exhibitions, the first at the Galleria Cairola in 1954, followed by La Cruna of Novara in 1957 and the last at the Rome Palazzo delle Esposizioni for the “IV Mostra Nazionale d’arte”, in 1967.