Utopia and doom. Art in the GDR. Exhibition at the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf until Jan 05, 2020

About time!

Thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall it has taken to present art in the GDR in this format in the “old” West. In fact, the overview show is the first museum show of it’s kind in the Rhineland. Apart from a show at the Bonner Kunsthalle, which had moved over from the Berlin National Gallery in 2004/05. So it’s a pretty modest number of events, up to here and now.

The Düsseldorf exhibition in Museum Kunstpalast wants to change that. It open the view to an art landscape which, after all, is not to be assessed in general terms with the supposedly still common (pre) judices. And also not only to be reduced to a singular political-social context and  historical environment.

What’s it about

About utopia and doom. In pictures. At least, the focus is on painting. Using the example of thirteen artistic positions between “loyal to the party line” and subversive, from consent to inner – and outer! – emigration. All this shows how multi-faceted the art landscape in the GDR was. Much more than the official nationwide socialist realism with its state artists, who in GDR times were actually export best sellers (and foreign exchange earners). The Düsseldorf exhibition organizers make no claim to completeness. And it is not a question of a historical-political analysis, but of an aesthetic reflection. However, the circumstances under which this art was created are certainly taken into account as well.

Multi-faceted and contradictory

The curators want to show that the art landscape in the GDR was multi-faceted and contradictory. Where ever feasible (because some of the artists actually living  – and highly productive! – contemporary artists), also in direct dialogue with the artists on the show. For example Cornelia Schleime, Angela Hampel and Michael Morgner.

From linear and conformist on the one hand, to system-critical and rebellious on the other, the GDR has experienced the development of changing, sometimes very independent aesthetic positions over time. With all the fashions and currents that the international art market has shown as well. But precisely under the special political, social and cultural conditions that were characterized by a strong, binding art doctrine and the correspondingly high pressure on artists.

From “supporting state and party” to “underground”. Artists whose works were exhibited and others whose work had to be created in secret. The Kunstpalast wants to open our eyes to precisely this spectrum. Selected artists of different generations are shown, who position themselves with very different views of their art and a correspondingly independent work. Thirteen very different artists with works from different years are presented in thirteen rooms.

Who is “on show”?

Both, more or less well known names and – at least here in the Rhineland and with younger people, I suppose at least – probably little known names outside the art experts world. Thus, GDR “figureheads” such as Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Werner Tübke and Willi Sitte, who have probably also stood for official GDR art in the West since the 1977 documenta, are represented here. As well as artists of the first generation, with Elisabeth Voigt and her ambivalent biography. Or Wilhelm Lachnit. Gerhard Altenbourg or Hermann Glöckner, with his non-figurative works, which at the time got crushed “under the wheels” of formal criticism. Carlfriedrich Claus, who was unable to show his mysterious drawings and enigmatic “language sheets” in the GDR, was no exception. And the highly experimental Michael Morgner, from whom the Kunstpalast had already bought a work for its own collection in 1991.

New viewing habits

Angela Hampel, who with her colourful images of women reflects gender roles and very emphatically questions them. Or A.R. Penck with his matchstick figures and a character code reminiscent of cave paintings. He was expatriated in 1980, and was already a star in the West. Cornelia Schleime, who was not allowed to exhibit in the GDR, and was expelled in 1984, but – apart from a few drawings – completely without her works of art, and who had to start anew in the West.

Cornelia Schleime actually “painted” her lost early work again, in the absence of money, even with highly creative methods when it comes to the material. For example, with coffee grounds from a Turkish snack bar in her neighborhood. Mixed with glue and black ink. Cornelia Schleime’s large-format work “O.T.” (“No title”) from 1986 has been created in this way. It can be seen for the first time in a museum exhibition. As a consequence, the artist later also obtained her Stasi files in order to comment on them with her own art. Thus, she re-occupied her biography. It was precisely in this way, that she took her biography back from these files, and transformed them into “her” life.

Something to read

To all those who do not only want to look, but also want to read, I would like to recommend the  catalogue. A book worth reading has been published to accompany the exhibition. With its thirteen very different essays on the individual artists, it makes it clear that the exhibition is not about a homogeneous “GDR art” of official reading, but about a heterogeneous “art in the GDR”. And its complexity with all its manifestations often eludes the usual dichotomies and supposedly “clarifying” pigeonholing. The thirteen selected positions and artist portraits also show this. Yes, there are only thirteen on show! Surely there is much more to discover. But you have to start with some selection. And after thirty years it’s really high time, isn’t it.

So you can see for yourself. And look very closely! Because there is something new to discover here.
Have fun!