Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR - Museum Barberini · Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR ......

Johanna Köhler

Leiterin Marketing und PR/

Head of Marketing and Public Relations

Museum Barberini gGmbH

Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 115

14467 Potsdam, Germany

T +49 331 236014-305

[email protected]

www.museum-barberini.com

Ursula Rüter & Stefan Hirtz

Projektbezogene Kommunikation

ARTEFAKT Kulturkonzepte

Marienburger Str. 16

10405 Berlin, Germany

T +49 30 440 10 686

[email protected]

www.artefakt-berlin.de

PRESS KIT

Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

Press conference on October 26, 2017, at 11 am

On the panel:

Ortrud Westheider, Director, Museum Barberini

Michael Philipp, curator, Museum Barberini

Valerie Hortolani, guest curator, Museum Barberini

Johanna Köhler, Head of Marketing and PR, Museum Barberini

followed by a tour of the exhibition

CONTENTS

1. Press release Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR (pages 2)

2. Facts & figures on the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR (pages 4)

3. Facts & figures on the Museum Barberini collection (page 7)

4. Interview Johanna Pfund (Süddeutsche Zeitung) with Prof. Hasso Plattner on the

Museum Barberini collection (pages 8)

5. Press release on the Palace Gallery (pages 10)

6. Publications (page 12)

7. Room notes Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR (pages 13)

8. Summary of Palace Gallery documentation (pages 15)

9. Digital Visitors’ Book (page 18)

10. Press photos and credits for Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR (pages 19)

11. Press photos and credits for Palace Gallery documentation (page 22)

12. Sources of loans to Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR (pages 23)

13. What else is on at the Museum Barberini? (page 25)

14. Events (pages 26)

15. Advance notice: Max Beckmann: World Theater and other exhibitions in 2018 (pages

33)

Digital version:

Catalogue Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

Complete list of works in Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

Complete list of works in Palace Gallery documentation

Wifi network: Presse; password: Presse285

Visuals available for download in optimized print quality via the link:

www.museum-barberini.com/presse

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Press release Potsdam, September 26, 2017

The Artist’s Perspective – GDR art on show at the Museum Barberini

Over 100 works by some 80 artists from the early years until 1989


October 29, 2017 to February 4, 2018

The exhibition at the Museum Barberini turns the spotlight on the way artists depict

themselves. On display are about 120 works by more than 80 artists, with loans from

almost 50 sources. State art policy expected artists to express the socialist manifesto

in pictures. But artists had their own ideas and their own understanding of art, and

their output extended well beyond these bounds. From 1949 till 1990, throughout the

entire period of the GDR, painters, sculptors and photographers created many

independent works exploring how they saw their own role. This artists’ art is the

theme of the show.

Aritists were caught up in the tensions between providing a social role model and

withdrawing into a private world, between prescribed collectivism and creative individuality.

The exhibition explores self-styling by artists as individual personalities – in self- and group

portaits, in role projections and in studio paintings, in abstract formal experiments and in

references to art history. Over four generations, artistic self-affirmation and a critical take on

the life of the artist were major themes.

Artists depict how they see themselves in self- and group portraits and in projections of role

models. These genres have been handed down through Western art since the Renaissance,

and East German artists likewise picked up on this tradition, as well as on the genre of

studio painting. Alongside these time-honored motifs and themes, the exhibition traces an

interest in the abstract as an artistic rebuttal of social relevance, and in the use of the artist’s

own body in performative works during the late 1980s.

There have been many exhibitions about GDR art since 1989. Most have shone the limelight

on political aspects – from the thorny issue of state-commissioned art (Berlin, 1995) via a

comparison of dictatorships (Weimar, 1999) to the potential for dissent (Berlin, 2016). After

these political and sociological perspectives, Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR asks how

artists turned their critical gaze upon themselves, reflecting on their own way of seeing

things and on their response to the tasks required of them, and identifying space for artistic

creativity despite the official mission. This thematic approach shifts the focus away from

sociological and ideological aspects toward the works themselves.

Through this exhibition, the Museum Barberini has begun to investigate its collection of East

German art, which still plays a marginal role in German art history. Building on in-house

holdings, from which ten exhibits have been selected, the show brings together more than

100 works by about 80 artists, including paintings, photographs, prints, drawings, collage

and sculpture.

The loans have been provided by a number of museums, galleries and private collections,

among them the Nationalgalerie in Berlin; Brandenburg’s Landesmuseum für moderne

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Kunst in Cottbus & Frankfurt (Oder); the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden; the

Kunstmuseum Moritzburg in Halle; the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig; the Tübke

Foundation in Leipzig, and Galerie Eigen + Art Leipzig/Berlin.

The selection includes works by Karl-Heinz Adler (*1927), Gerhard Altenbourg (1926–1989),

Strawalde (Jürgen Böttcher) (*1931), Hartwig Ebersbach (*1940), Hermann Glöckner (1889–

1987), Hans-Hendrik Grimmling (*1947), Ulrich Hachulla (*1943), Bernhard Heisig (1925–

2011), Wolfgang Mattheuer (1927–2004), Harald Metzkes (*1929), Michael Morgner (*1942),

A. R. Penck (1939–2017), Stefan Plenkers (*1945), Evelyn Richter (*1930), Arno Rink

(*1940), Theodor Rosenhauer (1901–1996), Willi Sitte (1921–2013), Werner Tübke (1929–

2004), Elisabeth Voigt (1893–1977), Dieter Weidenbach (*1945), Trak Wendisch (*1958)

and the group Clara Mosch.

The curators are Valerie Hortolani and Michael Philipp.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 280-page catalog with approx. 180 illustrations,

published by Prestel Verlag. The catalog can be purchased for € 29.95 in the museum shop

and for € 39.95 from the book trade. It contains contribuions from, among others, Valerie

Hortolani, Petra Lange-Berndt, Michael Philipp, Carolin Quermann, Martin Schieder.

Parallel to the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR, the Museum Barberini is

showing a documentation of the “Gallery in the Palace of the Republic” until May 21, 2018.

The 16 large-format paintings testify to state attempts at grandstanding by means of art.

Against this backdrop, it is all the easier to appreciate the rich landscape of East German art

that unfolded beyond this domain, and which can be viewed at the show Behind the Mask.

Marking the Palace Gallery presentation, the first issue of the Barberini Studies will be

brought out with texts by Michael Philipp. It has 112 pages. The soft-cover version will be on

sale at the museum shop for € 14.95, and the hard-cover edition can be purchased from the

book trade for €24.95.

SERVICE INFORMATION AND ADMISSION



Museum Barberini, Alter Markt, Humboldtstrasse 5–6, 14467 Potsdam, Germany

Mon & Wed–Sun: 10 a.m.–7 p.m., first Thu of every month: 10 a.m.–9 p.m., closed Tue

Mon–Fri (except Tue) for kindergartens and schools with reservations: 9–11 a.m. Admission:

€ 14 / reduced: € 10 / children and teens under 18: free

Timed tickets available online at www.museum-barberini.com

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Facts & figures on the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR



Number of works on show: About 120 works by 84 artists and 2 groups

Themed rooms

1. Portraits of Painters: Artists and their Roles

2. Reflections: Unobstructed Access to the Self

3. Experiments with Form: Abstraction and Autonomy

4. Images of Communities: Groups and Collectives

5. Claims on Inheritance: Role Models and References

6. Creative Sites: The Studio as Stage and Sanctuary

7. Masquerades: Costumes and Disguises

8. Questions of Faith: References to Christianity

9. Disruptive Images: Awakenings and Eruptions

and a room devoted to Sculpture in the GDR

Curators: Valerie Hortolani, Michael Philipp

Surface area: 1,200 m²

Exhibition design: Gunther Maria Kolck and BrücknerAping Büro für Gestaltung

Exhibition catalog

Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR, edited by Michael Philipp and Ortrud Westheider.

With contributions by Valerie Hortolani, Museum Barberini, Potsdam; Petra Lange-Berndt,

University of Hamburg; Michael Philipp, Museum Barberini, Potsdam; Carolin Quermann,

Städtische Galerie Dresden; Martin Schieder, University of Leipzig, and others.

24 x 30 cm, 280 pages, approx. 180 illustrations

From the museum shop: € 29.95

Book trade price: € 39.95

Munich: Prestel Verlag

Exhibited artists

Karl-Heinz Adler (*1927)

Gerhard Altenbourg (1926–1989)

Heinrich Apel (*1935)

Walter Arnold (1909–1979)

Theo Balden (1904–1995)

Harry Blume (1924–1992)

Micha Brendel (*1959)

Gudrun Brüne (*1941)

Kurt Buchwald (*1953)

Kurt Bunge (1911–1998)

Clara Mosch (1977–1982, Carlfriedrich Claus, Michael Morgner, Thomas Ranft, Dagmar

Ranft-Schinke, Gregor-Torsten Schade)

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Fritz Cremer (1906–1993)

Lutz Dammbeck (*1948)

Jutta Damme (1929–2002)

Hartwig Ebersbach (*1940)

Günter Firit (1947-2010)

Wieland Förster (*1930)

Else Gabriel (*1962)

Sighard Gille (*1941)

Hermann Glöckner (1889–1987)

Peter Graf (*1937)

Hans-Hendrik Grimmling (*1947)

Hans Grundig (1901–1958)

Sabina Grzimek (*1942)

Ulrich Hachulla (*1943)

Klaus Hähner-Springmühl (1950–2006)

Angela Hampel (*1956)

Rolf Händler (*1938)

Frieder Heinze (*1950)

Helmut Heinze (*1932)

Bernhard Heisig (1925–2011)

Bert Heller (1912-1970)

Peter Herrmann (*1937)

Sabine Herrmann (*1961)

Günther Hornig (1937– 2016)

Joachim Jansong (*1941)

Irene Kiele (*1942)

Erich Kissing (*1943)

Siegfried Klotz (1939–2004)

Otto Knöpfer (1911–1993)

Gerda Lepke (*1939)

Walter Libuda (*1950)

Eberhard Löbel (*1938)

Lücke-TPT (1971-1976, Harald Gallasch, Wolfgang Opitz, A. R. Penck, Hartmut Terk)

Frank Maasdorf (*1950)

Peter Makolies (*1936)

Otto Manigk (1902–1972)

Wolfgang Mattheuer (1927–2004)

Harald Metzkes (*1929)

Paul Michaelis (1914–2005)

Gertraud Möhwald (1929–2002)

Otto Möhwald (1933-2016)

Michael Morgner (*1942)

Jenny Mucchi-Wiegmann (1895–1969)

Rudolf Nehmer (1912–1983)

A.R. Penck (1939–2017)

Wolfgang Peuker (1945–2001)

Stefan Plenkers (*1945)

Karl Raetsch (1930–2004)

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Robert Rehfeldt (1931–1993)

Evelyn Richter (*1930)

Arno Rink (1940-2017)

Theodor Rosenhauer (1901–1996)

Jürgen Schieferdecker (*1937)

Cornelia Schleime (*1953)

Baldur Schönfelder (*1934)

Eva Schulze-Knabe (1907–1976)

Willi Sitte (1921-2013)

Volker Stelzmann (*1940)

Werner Stötzer (1931–2010)

Strawalde (Jürgen Böttcher, *1931)

Erika Stürmer-Alex (*1938)

Werner Tübke (1929-2004)

Elisabeth Voigt (1893–1977)

Andreas Wachter (*1951)

Norbert Wagenbrett (*1954)

Dieter Weidenbach (*1945)

Trak Wendisch (*1958)

Karlheinz Wenzel (*1932)

Christoph Wetzel (*1947)

Karin Wieckhorst (*1942)

Karla Woisnitza (*1952)

Willy Wolff (1905-1985)

Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (*1932)

Heinz Zander (*1939)

Thomas Ziegler (1947–2014)

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Facts & figures on the Museum Barberini collection

Hasso Plattner’s art collection ranges from the Old Masters to contemporary art. With an

outstanding grasp of painting, he has assembled, nearly unnoticed, one of the most

comprehensive collections of French Impressionist landscape paintings. His private

collection includes a large number of major works by such artists as Claude Monet (1840–

1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), and Alfred Sisley (1839–1899). Growing up on

the border between East and West Germany, Hasso Plattner has always had an interest in

German art of the 20th century, especially works from the former GDR and later. Faithful to

his motto “Experience the original, share the enthusiasm,” the founder and patron Prof. h. c.

mult. Hasso Plattner entrusted his collection to the Museum Barberini so that it would be

accessible to the public. Today, over 70 works by artists such as Gerhard Richter (*1932),

Bernhard Heisig (1925–2011), Werner Tübke (1929–2004), and Martin Kippenberger (1953–

1997) form the heart of the Hasso Plattner Stiftung, which is now housed at the Museum

Barberini.

Artists in the collection

Gudrun Brüne (*1941)

Hartwig Ebersbach (*1940)

Albrecht Gehse (*1955)

Ulrich Hachulla (*1943)

Bernhard Heisig (1925–2011)

Johannes Heisig (*1953)

Rolf Händler (*1938)

Walter Libuda *1950

Werner Liebmann (*1951)

Peter Makolies (*1936)

Wolfgang Mattheuer (1927–2004)

Harald Metzkes (*1929)

Roland Nicolaus (*1954)

Stefan Plenkers (*1945)

Arno Rink (1940–2017)

Willi Sitte (1921–2013)

Michael Triegel (*1968)

Werner Tübke (1929–2004)

Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910)

Sam Francis (1923–1994)

Klaus Fussmann (*1938)

Martin Kippenberger (1953–1997)

Gerhard Richter (*1932)

Andy Warhol (1928–1987)

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Attention: period of limitation until October 28, 2017

Interview Johanna Pfund (Süddeutsche Zeitung) with Prof. Hasso Plattner on the

Museum Barberini collection

SZ: You have an extensive collection of East German art – which is not nearly as popular as

the Impressionists that you collect as well. What was the main reason behind your decision

to start collecting art from the former East Germany?

Actually, there were two reasons. First of all, I took a great interest in works by painters such

as Mattheuer and Tübke as well as many other artists from the former GDR. I don’t

understand why they aren’t represented more in museums even after so many years. That’s

why I wanted to give them a forum. Secondly, with my new Museum Barberini, I have

consciously placed a focus on East German art because I think that the people there were

disadvantaged during the GDR period, and they got a raw deal again after the wall came

down.

SZ: East German art is frequently associated with monumental Socialist Realism works.

However the spectrum is much larger. Which works fascinate you in particular?

When I think of monumental Socialist Realism paintings, I think more of the former Soviet

Union than I do of the GDR. It would be a mistake to equate the two. In the GDR artists were

definitely repressed but they were still able to create some space for themselves. I’m

fascinated by paintings from the Leipzig School as well as by many works by Dresden and

Berlin artists because they are very complex and multilayered due to their engagement with

modernism and the Old Masters. I’m especially attracted to landscapes by Mattheuer

because they pull the viewer into a mysterious world.

SZ: You once said in an interview that you like beautiful things. Each person has a different

idea of what is beautiful. What is yours?

For me a work of art is beautiful if it engages all the senses. I need to feel the tension, smell

the air, and feel the water, or feel the power of an abstract composition. You notice a good

painting immediately and it can hold its own alongside other excellent works.

SZ: How do you come to a decision about which works to buy? Is there a long period of

deliberation before you make such – usually rather expensive – decisions? Or not? In other

words, what is the process?

I see a painting and immediately know if I like it. That’s why I almost always make a decision

very quickly without mulling it over or spending a long time deliberating. It goes without

saying that the provenance and quality need to add up. I also have the other paintings in my

collection in the back of my mind. Plus, I need to be able hang it somewhere and it needs to

fit.

SZ: For a long time you were primarily known as a software entrepreneur and promoter of

the sciences. In contrast, most people didn’t realize that you had put together a large

collection of art. When did you start your collection and how did it develop?

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In the 1970s I primarily collected contemporary German artists. Later, I was able to afford

more well-known, international artists.

SZ: Once one starts collecting, it’s hard to stop. How is it with you? Are there works from

particular eras or artists that you would like to purchase?

For the Museum Barberini we will continue to expand our collection of East German art, and

with the Impressionists I continue to discover paintings that I would like to have in my

collection. I like later, abstract artists that further developed Impressionist ideas and I am

expanding the collection in this direction. There is so much excellent art.

SZ: Art and science – do you think that these two disciplines have something in common? If

so, what are they?

Collecting is passive; scientific work is active. One looks for clear structures and quality in

particular in both.

SZ: You expressed strong criticism of the German law to protect cultural assets before it

passed. What do you think of the current version? How does the law affect you as a

collector? In your opinion what would be preferable?

In terms of painting, this law serves no one. Not even those who passed it. However, we

need to wait and see how it will be implemented.

SZ: Returning to art in the GDR: Which works in the exhibition at the Museum Barberini are

you especially looking forward to seeing?

I’m especially looking forward to seeing the paintings from the Museum Barberini in dialog

with loans from museums such as the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Staatliche

Kunstsammlungen Dresden – this way one has a direct comparison. And I think it’s good

that in the museum we can finally show how diverse and varied East German art really was.

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Press release Potsdam, September 26, 2017

Museum Barberini shows the Palace Gallery: On view for the first time in 20 years

Alongside the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR, the Gallery from the

Palace of the Republic will be on show again at the Museum Barberini from October

29, 2017 through May 21, 2018.

In 1976 the GDR opened the Palace of the Republic as the seat of parliament and an

emblematic arts venue. One feature of the Palace of the Republic were 16 large-format

paintings hanging in the main foyer. This “Palace Gallery” was created in 1975 around the

theme May communists dream? Artists like Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Willi

Sitte, Werner Tübke, Walter Womacka, and Hans Vent were exhibited here until the Palace

closed in 1990.

Only a few weeks after the inauguration, several hundred thousand visitors had already

seen the Palace of the Republic and the Gallery. The paintings were frequently illustrated in

East German publications, and some circulated in the form of postage stamps.

The Palace Gallery was last seen in 1996. Since then, the paintings have been in storage,

unless loaned individually for a few weeks to an exhibition.

The German Historical Museum, the Federal Office of Administration, and the Museum

Barberini jointly undertook to restore the works. This meant cleaning the surface (over 200

square meters altogether), refitting the hanging devices, and repairing the frames.

Defining the theme and finding artists to take part was the responsibility of the sculptor Fritz

Cremer. The only specific requirement – on architectural grounds – was the height of the

paintings, which had to be 280 cm. The width could be anything up to six meters. The artists

were free to choose their own motif, and these were all different. Apart from Walter

Womacka’s work When Communists Dream..., references to the selected theme were fairly

loose. Each artist adhered to his own style, but all the works were figurative, reflecting the

tradition of realistic painting in the GDR.

With this documentation, the Museum Barberini is presenting a historical testimonial from

the heyday of East German state art. Against this backdrop of art used as a showcase, it is

easier to appreciate the rich landscape of East German art that unfolded beyond this

domain. It can be witnessed at the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR at the

Museum Barberini from October 29, 2017 until February 4, 2018.

In the first volume of the Barberini Studies, Michael Philipp, Chief Curator at the Museum

Barberini, investigates the origins of the Palace Gallery, drawing on autobiographical

accounts and records from the GDR’s Ministry of Culture. Asking how the subversive

sounding title May communists dream? came about, and how the state sought to assert its

ideological aims, he shows that the artists only partially complied with the expectation that

they would produce propaganda. Despite the state’s monopoly on power, culture officials

were unable to impose their objectives, and they soon distanced themselves from the works.

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Even here, at the heart of a building intended as a showpiece for the GDR, the gap between

wordy ideological pronouncements and reality was evident.

On the Palace Gallery in the Palace of the Republic

The Palace of the Republic was built in 1973–1976 to designs by Heinz Graffunder on the

site of the former royal palace in Berlin where the Humboldt Forum is currently taking shape.

It served as the seat of parliament, as a symbol of prestige, and as an arts venue. Until its

closure in 1990, it was used for cultural events, concerts and theatre, with various

gastronomical options.

The overall design for this building included a substantial presence of art: the Palace Gallery

in the main foyer. The sculptor Fritz Cremer, who was vice-president of the Academy of Arts,

was appointed in 1973 to head the artistic planning team for the Palace of the Republic. It

was his task to find the artists who would produce works on his selected theme May

communists dream?

Artists and works

Günter Brendel (*1930): Big Still Life, 1975/76

René Graetz (1908–1974) / Arno Mohr (1910–2001): War and Peace, 1975

Erhard Grossmann (*1936): Tajikistan, 1975

Bernhard Heisig (1925–2011): Icarus, 1975

Wolfgang Mattheuer (1927–2004): Good Day, 1975

Arno Mohr (1910–2001): Keep Researching Till You Know, 1975

Willi Neubert (1920–2011): Yesterday – Today, 1975

Ronald Paris (*1933): The World Is Ours – For A’ That, 1975/76

Kurt Robbel (1909–1986): The Creative Forces, 1975/76

Wolfram Schubert (*1926): Bread for All, 1975

Willi Sitte (1921–2013): The Red Flag – Struggle, Suffering and Victory, 1975/76

Werner Tübke (1929–2004): Humanity – Measure of All Things, 1975

Hans Vent (*1934): People on the Beach, 1975

Matthias Wegehaupt (*1938): Space for the New, 1975

Walter Womacka (1925–2010): When Communists Dream..., 1975

Lothar Zitzmann (1924–1977): Song of World Youth, 1975

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Publications

Catalog


A catalogue from Prestel Verlag will accompany the exhibition. It contains 280 pages and

approx. 180 illustrations. The catalog is available for € 29.95 from the museum shop and for

€ 39.95 from the book trade. The essays were contributed by Valerie Hortolani, Petra

Lange-Berndt, Michael Philipp, Carolin Quermann, and Martin Schieder.

First issue of Barberini Studies

May Communists Dream? The Gallery in the Palace of the Republic: A documentary

presentation

The first volume of Barberini Studies, with texts by Michael Philipp, is devoted to the

presentation of the Palace Gallery. The 112-page issue is available as a soft-cover version

for €14,95 from the museum shop, in a hard cover from the book trade for € 24.95.

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Room notes Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

Portraits of Painters: Artists and their Roles

A self-portrait is always an act of artistic positioning. Since the Renaissance, artists have

used self-portraits as a tool for self-analysis. In a political system that sited the individual

within the context of a society, an artist’s preoccupation with the self was understood as an

insistence on subjectivity as the basis for creativity. From 1945 to 1989, this was a

controversial point of view. Portraits of friends and colleagues also displayed this emphasis

on the individual. Artists also grappled with the expectation for them to identify with the

workers.

Reflections: Unobstructed Access to the Self

Answers to an artist’s interrogation of the self are not always to be found in accurate

depictions of individuals or one’s surroundings. Since the dawn of modernism, artists have

used alienation, dissolution, fragmentation, collage, and symbolism to capture moments of

reality. Another artistic tool was the depiction of oneself in fictive spaces, which functioned

as projections of one’s self-perception. The focus was on an open stylistic search for the

self, rather than the individual’s place in social structures.

Images of Communities: Groups and Collectives

Group portraits are meant to convey a community’s identity. Socialist realist brigade pictures

drew from the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch guild portraits. Yet artists’ depictions of

their friends deliberately rejected the obligation to convey a larger message. Instead, they

cast themselves as existentialists and bohemians or as ironic nudes in the style of antiquity.

The collective works demanded by the state in the late 1940s were later revived by artist

groups, whose collaboratively created works eschewed any pretensions of grandeur or

representation.

Experiments with Form: Abstraction and Autonomy

The dogma of socialist realism rejected abstract art. It was regarded as the language of the

West, both incomprehensible and unrepresentative of the new image of humankind. Yet

artists continued to insist on creating abstract, non-representational works, continuing the

tradition of Bauhaus and Russian constructivism. The 1970s saw the introduction of material

pictures and concrete art. Although abstract works were seldom seen in officially organized

exhibitions, they had a powerful impact on architecture and art in architecture.

Claims on Inheritance: Role Models and References

Artists have been referencing their predecessors since the beginning of the modern era.

They measure themselves against masterpieces, copying, citing and transfiguring the

originals in order to surpass or pass judgment on them. In doing so, they stake a claim to

their own place within the artistic canon. Official art policy understood inherited traditions

differently. State legitimation was more important than artistic self-assertion. By taking on

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stylized artist personae from preceding centuries, artists evaluated themselves according to

standards outside the purview of state authorities.

Creative Sites: The Studio as Stage and Sanctuary

The studio is a self-determined space created not merely as a place for production, but also

as a personal expression of an artist’s individuality. The studio is where artists keep their

work, the result of their artistic process. A picture of a studio is a picture of an artist. It

reveals the site of creative production and captures stages in the working process: the

emptiness of the unpainted canvas, the profusion of ideas, or the productive chaos. The

studio suspends reality at the moment when thoughts take on a chimeric form of their own.

Questions of Faith: References to Christianity

In an atheist society, religious themes indicate an outsider. And yet the long-standing

tradition of Christian imagery is also a wellspring for such basic human emotions as grief,

pain, hope, and temptation. Drawing on this tradition allowed artists to depict their individual

existential experiences in a universal way, independent of a desire to impart a religious

message. Artists might identify with a sacred figure as a means of self-elevation or self-

ironization, and a depiction of the Passion of Christ can convey an artist’s creative struggle.

Disruptive Images: Awakenings and Eruptions

Art historians coined the term “problem pictures” to describe the complex content and

compositions of 1960s artworks. By then, intellectually demanding work was tolerated, for

agreement with the socialist state was presupposed. From the 1970s, artists ceased to

acquiesce to this political instrumentalization. The prevailing conditions so disturbed them

that their work no longer related to real socialism. Disruptive images and drastic techniques

using new methods became more prevalent in the 1980s.

Masquerades: Costumes and Disguises

The mask is the leitmotif of artistic self-assertion. It allows an artist’s true personality to be

concealed and thus protected. Masks express uncertainty about one’s place in society and

the experience of being an outsider, and they can be used to counter assigned roles. As a

clear means of camouflage, the mask conveys a deliberate distancing from one’s

surroundings and assumes a subversive potential. Before 1989, artists employed masks

playfully, ironically, and symbolically, yet their powerful role went unnoticed in official art

criticism.

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Summary of Palace Gallery documentation

Documentation: The Gallery of the Palast der Republik

The Palast der Republik

In April 1976, the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic) opened in Berlin as the seat

of the German Democratic Republic’s parliament and as a prestigious cultural center—a

palace for the people. Filled with more than three hundred works of art by more than a

hundred contemporary artists, it included paintings, reliefs, tapestries, and works of glass

and porcelain. The most prominent of these were in the gallery: a group of sixteen large-

format paintings by various artists on two floors of the main foyer.

Not only was the state’s flagship building erected on the site of the former Hohenzollern

palace—its ruins were dynamited in 1950—but it also marked the very place where Karl

Liebknecht had proclaimed the German Free Socialist Republic in November 1918.

The 1970s witnessed a number of foreign policy achievements for the GDR. It had garnered

international recognition with the December 1972 ratification of the Basic Treaty

(Grundlagenvertrag) between East and West Germany, the country’s inclusion in the United

Nations in September 1973, and the signing of the Helsinki Accords in August 1975. Yet the

decade was also an era of heightened confrontation between East and West. Policy issues

like rearmament, deterrence, and the threat of war presented the world powers with major

policy concerns.

Built between 1973 and 1976, the Palast der Republik housed the GDR’s legislature

(Volkskammer), a large event hall that could hold circa five thousand visitors, numerous

restaurants, and even a bowling alley and a disco. The foyer was its centerpiece.

The Palast der Republik Gallery and its Artists

The Ministry for Culture was responsible for the building’s artistic program. In 1973 it

entrusted the concept to Fritz Cremer, a sculptor known for his memorial at Buchenwald

concentration camp. Cremer sought as his starting point “to animate and humanize the

ensemble as a whole.” He rejected the introduction of large-scale, propaganda-oriented

designs to the façade, though this was long-standing practice in East German architecture.

Throughout the 1960s, certain artists from the GDR (starting with those in Leipzig) had

begun experimenting with greater creative freedom, departing from easy-to-understand,

optimistic, and idealized depictions of work and leisure in favor of fundamental themes and

historical subjects. Artists were developing a new, complex and expressive formal language.

It was to these kinds of painters that Cremer turned.

Cremer proposed nine of the sixteen painters ultimately exhibited in gallery of the Palast der

Republik: René Graetz, Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Arno Mohr, Ronald Paris,

Willi Sitte, Werner Tübke, Hans Vent, and Matthias Wegehaupt. The other seven were

invited on behalf of the Ministry for Culture: Günther Brendel, Erhard Großmann, Willi

Neubert, Kurt Robbel, Wolfram Schubert, Walter Womacka, and Lothar Zitzmann.

As artists, these men represented a broad spectrum in terms of age, place of study and

career profile. The oldest—Graetz, Robbel, and Mohr—were born between 1908 and 1910

and belonged, like Cremer, to the GDR’s first generation of artists. Most of the participants,

like Neubert, Sitte, Womacka, and Heisig, belonged to the second generation, a group that

16

included those born up to 1930. The youngest artists commissioned were Großmann and

Wegehaupt, who were 38 and 36 years old when they were selected. The painters had

studied in different places—in Berlin-Weißensee, Dresden, Halle, Leipzig, and Weimar—but

as professors they were connected exclusively to the art schools in Berlin-Weißensee, Halle,

and Leipzig.

The Themes

For the theme of the Palast gallery, Fritz Cremer posed a question: “Are Communists

Allowed to Dream?” The artists generally interpreted the title’s open wording as a carte

blanche from a design perspective. Giving visual representation to dreams suspended the

natural laws of logic, time, and space. It also enabled another kind of composition that had

emerged in the 1960s in the GDR: “simultaneous,” or “complex painting.” Paintings in the

gallery by Heisig, Neubert, Paris, Sitte, and Wegehaupt can each be interpreted as a sort of

visual representation of a dream, and Womacka’s painting—the only one to actually show a

person dreaming—made the program more explicit.

Cremer took the concept from Vladimir Lenin’s 1902 political text What Is To Be Done? in

which Lenin argued that the dreams of revolutionaries serve as a stimulus for sweeping

social change. Direct representations of the working class and of class antagonism appear

in only a few instances in the Palast gallery, however: Mohr addressed socialist education,

Schubert looked to the typology of the proud peasant, and Großmann portrayed workers

and peasants in Soviet Tajikistan.

Of the paintings, half of them have dichotomies as their determining premise. The themes

war and peace, past and future, reaction and progress, evil and good, imperialism and

socialism feature prominently—be it in sixteenth-century garb (as in Tübke’s work), as

timeless symbolism (in Graetz’s case), or concealed in ornamental decor (as in Zitzmann’s

Song of World Youth). Heisig’s Icarus is unique among the works in the Palast gallery for

sounding a skeptical note in its disturbing depiction of the open-ended course of history.

Christian motifs and themes are also prevalent—which was no means a given, considering

their placement within the flagship building of a state that considered itself atheist. As for

history painting, Sitte’s composition depicted the historical struggle of the workers’

movement in the first third of the twentieth century, while Neubert provided an “anti-

imperialist” interpretation of the bombing of Dresden in World War II. Within the gallery, only

Mattheuer’s painting Good Day shows an everyday scene from contemporary life in the

1970s.

Reception

The stylistic diversity, multifarious approaches, and variety of pictorial concepts evident in

the Palast der Republik gallery paintings show the effects of the short-term liberalization of

GDR cultural policy in the first years after Erich Honecker’s rise to power in 1971—and what

the cultural functionaries understood by it. Indeed, the works stretched the concept of

socialist realism almost to the point of arbitrariness.

Reviews of the gallery made liberal use of the first-person plural; the words “we” and “us”

appear again and again. In this way authors conscripted readers and viewers into a

constructed community of consensus marked by shared sentiments and perspectives. The

gallery was initially embraced as an official showcase of art from the GDR, and the paintings

were presented to state guests from abroad.

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Leaders soon grew dissatisfied with the Palast’s gallery, however. Cultural policy sought to

suppress the public’s awareness of the works, even limiting the number of reproductions

that were printed.

If contemporaries saw the gallery of the Palast der Republik as a prestigious showcase for

GDR painting, it also marked the high point of the state’s official art policy. Just half a year

after the Palast was opened, the erosion of the state began to accelerate, spurred by the

expulsion of the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann in November 1976 and the protests and

repressive state countermeasures that ensued.

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Digital Visitors’ Book

Barberini Letterbox

Barberini Digital supports the encounter with the original. A vibrant, digital approach to

explaining art accompanies the art experience – for example, with the app before the visit,

the smart wall in the museum, and afterwards.

At the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR, there is also the Barberini Letterbox.

In the form of the Barberini Letterbox, the museum has established a smart Visitors’ Book

and invites visitors to express their feedback about the exhibition, their opinions or personal

requests. These handwritten contributions are captured digitally and shared with the public

in the exhibition space via an animated projection. The Barberini Letterbox is also directly

linked to the museum’s other digital channels, such as the app and the website. In this way,

the visitors’ contributions reach a broader audience outside the museum.

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Press photos and credits for Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

Wolfgang Mattheuer: The

Gray Window, 1969,

Museum Barberini, © VG

BILD-KUNST, Bonn 2017

Erika Stürmer-Alex: Self-

Portrait, 1981, Besitz der

Künstlerin, Photo: Joachim

Richau, Berlin, © VG BILD-

KUNST, Bonn 2017

Trak Wendisch: Seiltänzer,

1984, Staatliche Museen zu

Berlin, Nationalgalerie,

Photo: bpk / Nationalgalerie,

SMB / Jörg P. Anders, © VG


A. R. Penck: Me, 1970,

Privatsammlung über Neues

Museum. Staatliches

Museum für Kunst und

Design, Nürnberg, Photo:

Stiftung Neues Museum

Weserburg Bremen, © VG


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Willi Sitte: Woman Leaning,

1957, Museum Barberini, ©

VG BILD-KUNST, Bonn 2017

Günter Firit: Self-Destruction,

1987, Nachlass Günter Firit,

Photo: Frank Strassmann

Harald Metzkes: Janus Face,

1977, Kunstsammlung der

Berliner Volksbank, Photo:

Stefan Maria Rother, Berlin,

© VG BILD-KUNST, Bonn

2017

Erich Kissing: People from

Leipzig at the Sea, 1976–

1979, Museum der bildenden

Künste Leipzig, Photo: bpk /

Museum der bildenden

Künste, Leipzig / Bertram

Kober (Punctum Leipzig), ©

VG BILD-KUNST, Bonn 2017

21

Norbert Wagenbrett: Self-

Portrait with Worker, 1983,

Brandenburgisches

Landesmuseum für moderne

Kunst, Photo: Bernd Kuhnert,

© VG BILD-KUNST, Bonn

2017

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Press photos and credits for Palace Gallery documentation

Lothar Zitzmann:

Weltjugendlied, 1975,

Leihgabe der Bundesrepublik

Deutschland, © VG Bild-

Kunst, Bonn 2017

Walter Womacka: Wenn

Kommunisten träumen...,

1975, Leihgabe der

Bundesrepublik Deutschland,

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Bernhard Heisig: Ikarus,

1975, Leihgabe der

Bundesrepublik Deutschland,

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

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Sources of loans to Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg

Kunstarchiv Beeskow – archived collection of GDR art

ACT Art Collection, Berlin

ChertLüdde, Berlin

Galerie Barthel + Tetzner, Berlin

Galerie EIGEN + ART, Leipzig/Berlin

Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin

Johannes Zielke, LÄKEMÄKER, Berlin

Berliner Volksbank Art Collection

Willy-Brandt-Haus Collection, Berlin

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin

Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst, Cottbus & Frankfurt (Oder)

Albertinum/New Masters Gallery, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Albertinum/Sculpture Collection, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Kunstfonds, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Prof. Harald Marx, Dresden

Angermuseum Erfurt

Bilderhaus Krämerbrücke, Erfurt

Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt. Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale)

Sammlung Liebelt, Hamburg

Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Neue Galerie, Sammlung der Moderne, Kassel

Evelyn Richter Archive held by the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung at the Museum der

bildenden Künste, Leipzig Sparkasse Leipzig Art Collection

Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig

Tübke Stiftung, Leipzig

Jutta and Manfred Heinrich Art Collection, Maulbronn

Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nuremberg

Potsdam Museum – Forum for Art and History

Siegfried Seiz Collection, Reutlingen

Städtische Museen, Kunsthalle Rostock

Staatliches Museum Schwerin/Ludwigslust/ Güstrow

mumok | Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna

artists and their estates:

Fritz Cremer Fonds

Günter Firit Fonds

Angela Hampel

Gerda Lepke

Harald Metzkes

Robert Rehfeldt Fonds

Strawalde (Jürgen Böttcher)

Erika Stürmer-Alex

Andreas Wachter

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Karin Wieckhorst

Karla Woisnitza

and private collections wishing to remain anonymous

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What else is on at the Museum Barberini?

Francis, Kippenberger, Warhol, Richter: From the Collection of the Museum Barberini

For his series of works entitled Dear Painter, Paint for Me, the painter and performance artist

Martin Kippenberger hired a commercial movie-poster artist from Berlin to produce large-

format paintings based on his photographs. In doing so, Kippenberger parodied the role of

the painter as someone who provides firsthand testimony. In this “commissioned self-

portrait,” Kippenberger presents himself as a contemporary witness to the division of

Germany, posing in front of a souvenir stand between posters that commemorate the

thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the GDR.

Abstraction in Mexico and the United States: From 1960 to the Present Day

Indigenous motifs inspired the brightly colored abstract works of Rufino Tamayo (1899–

1991), Harold J. Waldrum (1934–2003), and Dan Namingha (b. 1950).

With Harold Joe Waldrum (1934–2003), Dan Namingha (*1950) and Rufino Tamayo (1899–

1991), the Museum Barberini is presenting three idiosyncratic modern art positions in the

USA and Mexico. Paintings by Dan Namingha unite the abstract formal language of

American modernism with the motifs and symbols of the Native American Hopi tribe.

Namingha transposes motifs from ornamental ceramics and the ceremonial dances of the

Hopi into the realm of panel painting. Harold Joe Waldrum brings an abstract quality to his

motifs of New Mexican architecture through simplification, close-ups, and fragmentation.

The Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo is a pioneer of modern art in Mexico. His work recalls

early wall paintings and the pre-Columbian art of his homeland while also reflecting his

engagement with surrealism and cubism.

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Events

Public Tours

every day, except Tuesday, at 11 a.m., 12 a.m., and 3 p.m., and Thursday evenings at

5 p.m. Please reserve tickets for children’s art activities in advance on our website or at the

ticket desk in the museum.€ 3 p. p. plus admission

Children's Art Activities

Every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., children ages 5 and above can discover art in the

museum. They will encounter original works of art on exhibit and afterward explore their own

creativity in the museum’s studio. € 3 p. child

Barberini After Five

With Barberini After Five, the Museum Barberini is bringing a program for visitors under

35 to Germany. We offer tours, eye-to-eye discussions, and a place to enjoy art in a relaxing

atmosphere. Get ready for an exciting program filled with music and art.We were inspired by

a visit to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., which launched a sophisticated

program of events with Phillips After 5. The Museum Barberini is also working with the

collection on its show From Hopper to Rothko: America’s Road to Modern Art, which will be

on display in the summer of 2017. € 10 / reduced € 8

Conferences

Conference for the exhibition Gerhard Richter: Abstraction (June 30 – Oct. 21, 2018)

Inspired by a new acquisition, the Museum Barberini will present the exhibition Gerhard

Richter: Abstraction next summer. It will follow the painter’s work from the 1960s to the

present day. The exhibition explores the relationship and significance of abstraction and

subject matter, photography and painting in color, overpainting and priming. These topics

will be addressed by Hubertus Butin, Dietmar Elger, Matthias Krüger, Ortrud Westheider,

and Armin Zweite. € 10 / € 8 reduced rate / students admitted free of charge

Auditorium

Conference for the exhibition Henri-Edmond Cross (Nov. 17, 2018 – Feb. 17, 2019)

In the 1880s a style of painting emerged from Impressionism. Known as Pointillism, it placed

small brilliant dabs of paint next to each other, fragmenting reality into single bits of color.

One of its most important representatives was Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910), who was

a follower of anarchist principles promoting a Utopian society. In cooperation with the Musée

des Impressionnismes Giverny, the Museum Barberini will be showing the first retrospective

of this Neo-Impressionist’s work in Germany in the fall of 2018. Talks by Marina Ferretti,

Annette Haudequet, Monique Nonne, and others will present this French artist in the context

of European modernism. € 10 / € 8 reduced rate / students admitted free of charge

Auditorium

Events on Behind the Mask. Artists in the GDR

Reading

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 7 p.m.

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Die Lüge (The Lie) Uwe Kolbe

Uwe Kolbe’s novel deals with betrayal: Within the scope of his activities for the state, a

father makes use of various sources in the cultural scene – including his own son. This is

the story of an excessive and terrifying entanglement. Father and son begin to revolve

around each other. The reader slowly begins to have a sense of the battle they are locked in

and that it will last a life time.

In cooperation with the Stadt- und Landesbibliothek Potsdam

€ 10 / reduced € 8

Auditorium

Reading

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017, 7 p.m.

Stierblutjahre (Bull’s Blood Years: Bohemians of the East) Die Boheme des Ostens,

Jutta Voigt

Jutta Voigt discusses the desire for a different life in East Germany. In the foreword of her

book she writes, “The history of Bohemians in East Germany is one of new beginnings and

disappointment, of avant-garde and indifference. But also one of the love of the game and

the power of presumption. Bohemians in the East chain smoked and drank red wine, their

favorite being the best there was, Egri Bikavér, or Bull’s Blood from Hungary.” Jutta Voigt

studied philosophy in the 1960s at the Humboldt University in Berlin and was a part of the

Bohemian scene in Prenzlauer Berg.

In cooperation with Stadt- und Landesbibliothek Potsdam

Free

Sponsored by Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur

Reservations are recommended:

T + 49 331 289 6600, www.bibliothek.potsdam.de

Location: Stadt- und Landesbibliothek Potsdam, Am Kanal 47, 14467 Potsdam

Talk

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, 4–7 p.m.

Harald Metzkes at the Museum Barberini and the Potsdam Museum

Guided tour of the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR at the Museum Barberini

followed by a talk by Dr. Jutta Götzmann: Harald Metzkes – I Create Myself

Harald Metzkes studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, was a student in the master

class of Otto Nagel at the Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin and is among the

pioneering artists of the Berlin School. He received the Brandenburg Minister President

Award in 2012 for his life’s work which consists of thousands of oil paintings, watercolors,

drawings, and prints. Four of his works can be seen in the exhibition Behind the Mask:

Artists in the GDR. A tour of the exhibition at the Museum Barberini from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

will be followed by a talk by Dr. Jutta Götzmann, Director of the Potsdam Museum, titled

Harald Metzkes – I Create Myself. It will examine the artist’s view of himself and the world.

The focus will be on two paintings that Harald Metzkes is delivering to the Potsdam

Museum’s art collection. They will be presented for the first time in the lecture hall.

In cooperation with the Potsdam Museum – Forum for Art and Culture

€ 10 / reduced € 8

Tour: Museum Barberini foyer

Talk: Potsdam Museum, Am Alten Markt 9, 14467 Potsdam

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Concert and Discussion

Soundscapes

Overtones: Painting and Music in East Germany

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017, 7 p.m.

Musicians from the Kammerakademie Potsdam

Clemens Goldberg, host and critic of Kulturradio rbb, talks about composition in painting and

music on the basis of paintings in the exhibition and compositions created during the East

German period. He discusses these topics with musicians from the Kammerakademie

Potsdam and Dr. Ortrud Westheider, director of the Museum Barberini.

Host: Clemens Goldberg, Berlin

Following the concert and discussion, audience members have a special opportunity to visit

the exhibition and compare notes at the Café Barberini.

In cooperation with the Kammerakademie Potsdam

€ 20 / reduced € 15

Auditorium

Lecture Series: Art in the GDR

The exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR explores the self-expression of artists as

individuals. The widespread stereotype of state-sponsored artists gets in the way of seeing

individual artists and the different living and working conditions of artists in the former East

Germany. Almost 30 years after the end of the GDR, we have the opportunity to talk to

contemporary witnesses about their experiences, perceptions and evaluations.

€ 10 / reduced € 8

Auditorium

Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, 7 p.m.

Curriculum Vitae: Artists and Their Work

A discussion with Hartwig Ebersbach, Prof. Else Gabriel, and Prof. Hans-Hendrik Grimmling

The evening will focus on artistic and biographical issues – the development of individuals

and the selection of creative subject matter as well the conditions under which art was

studied in East Germany. Hartwig Ebersbach conspicuously presents himself in the center

of his artistic work. Between 1979 and 1983 he taught the only class for experimental art at

the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. As a member of the Autoperforation performance

group, Else Gabriel caused irritation and made waves in Dresden and Berlin. Today she

works at the Weißensee Academy of Art in Berlin. The painter Hans-Hendrik Grimmling was

a co-initiator of the 1st Leipzig Herbstsalon in 1984, one of the important events in artistic

self-assertion in East Germany. Until recently he taught at the BTK University of Applied

Sciences in Berlin.

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Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, 7 p.m.

Instances of Art Education

A discussion with Matthias Flügge, Gerd Harry Lybke, and Jutta Penndorf

In spite of regulation and repression, it was possible to find ways to present art in museums,

journals, or private spaces in East Germany that did not conform to the official agenda if

those involved wanted to. Matthias Flügge is a curator and art historian who was the editor

of the journal Bildende Kunst from 1977 to 1984. Today he is rector of the Academy of Fine

Arts in Dresden. In 1983, Gerd Harry Lybke opened his Galerie Eigen + Art in Leipzig. He is

one of the leading art dealers for contemporary art in Germany. Until 2012, Jutta Penndorf

was the director of the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg and is a member of the Sächsische

Akademie der Künste.

Film Series

With its series of cinematic works by Jürgen Böttcher (Strawalde), Lutz Dammbeck, A. R.

Penck, Cornelia Schleime, Gabriele Stötzer, and others, the Film Museum is showing how

artists in East Germany also used film as a means of implementing or questioning their

aesthetic strategies by examining their own profession. A motion picture by director Konrad

Wolf and television reports add additional perspectives to the theme of artists in the GDR.

Visitors to the Museum Barberini or these showings will receive a discount on admission to

the other museum upon presentation of their ticket.

Ticket reservations:

T +49 331 27181-12, [email protected]

€ 6 / reduced € 5

Filmmuseum Potsdam, Breite Str. 1a/Marstall, 14467 Potsdam

Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, 7 p.m.

Short Films and Artist Interviews with Jürgen Böttcher (Strawalde)

The painter and film-maker Jürgen Böttcher (Strawalde) discusses his cinematic work in

East Germany. The 86 year-old presents a selection of his artist portraits and experimental

films which bring the works of the Old Masters to life.

Host: Knut Elstermann

Drei von vielen

D: Jürgen Böttcher (Strawalde), GDR 1961, in German, 35 min.

Kurzer Besuch bei Hermann Glöckner


Venus nach Giorgione


Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017, 7 p.m.

Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz

D: Konrad Wolf, with Kurt Böwe, Ursula Karusseit, GDR 1974, in German, 101 min.

Introduction: Dr. Thomas Beutelschmidt (media historian)

Konrad Wolf’s succinctly narrative satire addresses the contradictory situation of the artist in

a socialist society. Contemporary television reports supplement the film.

Friday, Jan. 12, 2018, 7 p.m.

Subversionen in East Germany

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An independent film scene emerged in East Germany at the end of the 1970s in which

artists countered GDR reality with their own virtual reality.

Introduction: Dr. Claus Löser (film historian)

Terror in Dresden

D: A. R. Penck, GDR 1978, in German, 20 min.

Animated Film 3 – Esclapantes oder Sommer in Uhlenhorst

D: Andreas Dress, GDR 1983, in German, 16 min.

Lokalbestimmung

D: Gabriele Stötzer, GDR 1984, in German, 15 min.

Mirabilia

D: E. Wolfgang Hartzsch, GDR 1988, in German, 20 min.

Zwischen Gold und Gelb kann nur noch Licht fallen

D: Cornelia Schleime, GDR 1989, in German, 18 min.

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, 7 p.m.

Films and Artist Interview with Lutz Dammbeck

Leipzig-born artist Lutz Dammbeck was one of the initiators of the 1st Leipzig Herbstsalon in

1984, a semi-legal exhibition of six artist friends. In 1995, he created a film about the

generation of his teachers which included Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig.

Host: Ralf Schenk, DEFA-Stiftung (t.b.c.)

1. Leipziger Herbstsalon

D: Lutz Dammbeck, GDR 1984/2017, in German, 22 min.

Dürers Erben

D: Lutz Dammbeck, D 1995, in German, 58 min.

Barberini After Five

Recharge, Relax, Rethink

Barberini After Five is a series of events for visitors under 35 offering tours, eye-to-eye

discussions, and a place to enjoy art in a relaxing atmosphere. Every first Thursday of the

month from 5 to 9 p.m. you can enjoy an exciting program of music and art. Every evening

begins with a tour of the exhibition and a hands-on group activity that references topics and

motifs found in the exhibition. Cocktails mixed by Bar Fritz’N.

Young Friends free / Students € 5 / Friends € 3

Regular € 17 / reduced € 13

Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017

Barberini After Five: Let loose with DJ Cpt. Twist

Along with the visual arts, pop culture in East Germany was highly controversial. Cultural

historian Bodo Mrozek from the Center for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam

and author of the book Jugend – Pop – Kultur. Eine transnationale Geschichte (2018)

presents a richly illustrated overview with many sound bites on the absurdity of East

Germany’s pop culture history. Alongside criminalized fashion such as jeans and plaid

shirts, there was also the Leipzig Lipsi, a dance created by the state to counter rock-and-roll

gyrations in the West. Unlike the later broadcaster DT 64, it was poorly receive by East

German youth. They chanted: “We don’t want Lipsi or Alo Koll, we want Elvis Presley and

we love rock ’n’ roll.”

5:30 p.m.: Tour of the exhibition, meet in the foyer

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6–6:30 p.m.: Introduction: Marching to a Different Beat: Rock and Pop Music in East

Germany, Bodo Mrozek: Auditorium

6:30–9 p.m.: DJ Cpt. Twist mixes historic vinyl tracks

(Soul jazz and R&B): Foyer

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017

Barberini After Five: Barberini Quiz

Why are bananas bent? No idea, but can you heal wounds or make good paint with them?

These and many other strange questions will be asked and answered by Seitenquiz in

entertaining and sometimes chaotic quiz rounds. The activists from Seitenquiz turn the

theme of the exhibition on its head. The winner will be the unofficial Barberini quiz

champion, and even if you don't know anything about art, you still have an excellent chance

to win during this evening of entertainment.


6–8 p.m.: Barberini quiz with Seitenquiz: Auditorium

6–9 p.m.: Music and drinks in the foyer

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018

Barberini After Five: Take It Easy

5:30, 6:30, 7:30 p.m.: Tour of the exhibition, meet in the foyer

6–9 p.m.: Enough looking back on the past. We’ll take a look at the future.

Get in the mood for the New Year with music and drinks: Auditorium

Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018

Barberini After Five: Best of Poetry Slam

Five well-traveled and much-celebrated poets take the stage with poems that describe, jinx,

conjure up, or counter the echo chamber that deals with the exhibition Behind the Mask:

Artists in the GDR. But since the invited artists are too good to send home right away, they

will compete against each other in a second, freestyle round to settle once and for all who

the audience favorite is. Afterwards, DJ Ernesto Linares will add his own acoustic beats to

the rhythms of speech.


6–8 p.m.: Best of Poetry Slam: Auditorium

DJ Ernesto Linares (Spree vom Weizen): Auditorium

Children Guide Children

Art at Eye Level

Kids show their favorite pictures.

Our Kid Guides take children between 6 and 13 on a tour of the exhibition Behind the Mask:

Artists in the GDR. They reveal why artists painted themselves so often, why they

sometimes wore masks and costumes, why there are group portraits – and so much more!

First Sunday of every month, 3 p.m. (30 min.)

€ 3 per child

Meeting place: Foyer

Birthday Party with Art, Tour and Workshop

Available Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays after 3 p.m. (120 min.)

€ 110 for a maximum of 15 children

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Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018

Unterwegs im Licht

On January 20, 2018, Potsdam is presenting Unterwegs im Licht. At nightfall, artistic light

displays create a magnificent play of color on the facades of buildings in the center of

Potsdam. To celebrate, the Museum Barberini is offering a variety of creative events for

children from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Admission for children is free.

Discount admission for adults € 10

Children’s Art Activities, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

For kids from 5 to 10

€ 3 per child

Please register in advance.

Meeting place: Foyer

Children Guide Children Through the Exhibition

Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR, 4–4:30 p.m.

For kids from 5 to 12,

max. 20 children

Open Studio, 3–5 p.m.

Extended opening hours: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

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Advance notice: Max Beckmann: World Theater and other exhibitions in 2018


Behind the Mask. Artists in the GDR

February 24 to June 10, 2018

Max Beckmann: The World as a Stage

June 30 to Oktober 21, 2018

Gerhard Richter. Abstraction

November 17, 2018 to Feburary 17, 2019

Henri-Edmond Cross

Exhibition Max Beckmann: The World as a Stage

24 February to 10 June, 2018

Max Beckmann (1884–1950) was fascinated by the world of the theater, circus, and

music halls as metaphorical showcases for human relationships and world affairs.

Many of his paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures allude directly to these

subjects, conveying his idea of the world as a stage.

Museum Barberini, which opened in January 2017 with the exhibitions Impressionism: The

Art of Landscape and Modern Art Classics: Liebermann, Nolde, Munch, Kandinsky, is now

launching with Max Beckmann: The World as a Stage a series of monographic exhibitions

on the artists of classical modernism.

The exhibition was conceived in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Bremen, where it is on view

from 30 September 2017 to 4 February 2018.

The images presented demonstrate that, like no other artist, Max Beckmann turned

theatrical display into a fundamental principle of painting. Starting in the years after World

War I, he used three methods to create a mood of ostentation in his works: First, he staged

the body; secondly, he used objects as attributes; and thirdly, he worked with the gesture of

pointing.

A focus on dramatic grandstanding—whether by music hall or carnival artistes, acrobats,

clowns, or actors—dominated Beckmann’s work from the early 1920s until his death in

1950. Stephan Lackner, a writer and Beckmann confidant, raised the artist’s enduring

interest in this subject matter to a philosophical level in 1938 with the concept of the theater

of the world. He connected Beckmann’s depictions with the Baroque idea of the affairs of the

world as mere play-acting providing clues to the underlying reality. The concept of the

theater of the world has often been associated with Beckmann. And yet Max Beckmann:

The World as a Stage is the first exhibition devoted to an extensive exploration of this topic.

Here, Beckmann’s theatre of the world becomes fully tangible in both its visual and

ideological dimensions as we watch the painter and author of two little-known dramas cast

himself in the roles of “theater director, film director, and stagehand.”

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On view are some 150 of Beckmann’s works—including as special highlight two large-format

triptychs that have rarely been shown in Europe. The starting point for the exhibition is the

collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen, which has one of the most important groups of works

by Beckmann anywhere in Germany, including major paintings as well as nearly all of the

artist’s prints. In the show, the works enter into dialogue with important loans from major

museums and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the

National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), and the Von der

Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal).

The exhibition was curated by Eva Fischer-Hausdorf (Kunsthalle Bremen) and Ortrud

Westheider (Museum Barberini).

In preparation for the exhibition, a symposium was held at Museum Barberini on 29 March

2017. The speakers were Dr. Eva Fischer-Hausdorf, Kunsthalle Bremen; Dr. Ortrud

Westheider, Museum Barberini; Dr. Christiane Zeiller, Max Beckmann Archive, Munich; Dr.

Lynette Roth, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (USA); Prof. Dr.

Irene Pieper, University of Hildesheim; and Dr. Sebastian Karnatz, Bavarian Department of

State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, Munich.

The talks are printed as essays in the extensive exhibition catalogue, which also illustrates

each exhibited work in color.

Works were loaned for the exhibition by the following:

Gemeente Stadsarchief Amsterdam

Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Fotonachlass Heinrich George, Berlin

Institut für Theaterwissenschaft der Freien Universität Berlin, Theaterhistorische

Sammlungen

Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Zirkusarchiv Winkler, Berlin

Kunstmuseum Bonn

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA

Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH

Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Museum Folkwang, Essen

Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Sammlung Peter Rawert, Hamburg

Museum Ludwig, Köln

Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, London

Tate, London

Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein

Max Beckmann Archiv, Max Beckmann Nachlässe, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,

München

Pinakothek der Moderne, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, München

Richard L. Feigen Collection, New York

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO

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Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal

Mr. and Mrs. Michael B. Grogan

as well as private lenders who do not wish to be named.

SERVICE DATA & TICKETS

Museum Barberini, Alter Markt, Humboldtstraße 5–6, 14467 Potsdam

Mon & Wed-Sun 10 a.m.–7 p.m., first Thu of the month 10 a.m.–9 p.m., closed Tue

Mon-Fri (except Tue) for kindergartens and schools by appointment 9–11 a.m.

Admission: € 14/ € 10 with discount / children under 18 free of charge

Annual pass: individual € 30 / couples € 50 /

Young Friend (under 35) € 20

Online tickets for a specific time slot: www.museum-barberini.com

Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR - Museum Barberini · Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR ......

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