Luisa Respondek

Luisa Respondek is an art historian whose work explores the interplay between urbanism and visual culture, as well as the role of fashion in modern paintings. Combining art historic research with practical museum experience, she is interested in the different manifestations of modernity and elevating the role of women and interdisciplinarity in nineteenth and twentieth century works. Educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA), Harvard University (MArch) and the University of Cambridge (BA Hons), she also brings a spatial perspective to her work as a former architectural designer.

In line with her interests, she previously worked on major exhibitions such as “Fashioned by Sargent” (2023), “Strong Women in Renaissance Italy” (2023), “Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore” (2024) and “Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson” (2025) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Apart from her exhibition work, one of her proudest achievements at the MFA was obtaining an honorary shelf in the carpentry department. Earlier, she also worked on “Pink” (cancelled due to COVID) at the Harvard Art Museums and “Countryside, The Future” (2020) with OMA at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, helping shape the narrative of the “Migration” and “Semiotics” chapters. Delighted to spend an inordinate amount of time in museums (and forcing those around her to do the same), Luisa is looking forward to her upcoming research project at the Heidi Horten Collection.

As the inaugural “Art Historian in Residence” for the Heidi Horten Collection, Luisa is focusing her residency on her research proposal “Hats Off! An Expressionistic Take on Millinery”. Literally and figuratively lifting the hat to Expressionist works in the collection, she is examining the significance of headwear as expressions of identity, modernity and society. Using August Macke’s “Two Women in Front of a Hat Shop” as a departing point, she is analysing fashion history with regards to gender, consumer culture, and urban development. In so doing, she is not only highlighting the versatile hat as a hitherto understudied element of Expressionist work but also adding a female perspective to the often male-dominated movement through the women-led profession of millinery

With the hat-inspired research, Luisa is not only building on her previous research on fashion in Impressionist works but also nodding to the significance of fashion in Heidi Horten’s life as highlighted by the Collection’s previous “LOOK” exhibition.