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) Addition: 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 Johanna Köhler Museum Barberini gGmbH T +49 331 236014-305 Leiterin Marketing und PR/ Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 115 [email protected] Head of Marketing and Public Relations 14467 Potsdam, Germany www.museum-barberini.com Ursula Rüter & Stefan Hirtz ARTEFAKT Kulturkonzepte T +49 30 440 10 686 Projektbezogene Kommunikation Marienburger Str. 16 [email protected] 10405 Berlin, Germany www.artefakt-berlin.de 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 Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR 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 2 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 Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR October 29, 2017 to February 4, 2018 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 3 Facts & figures on the exhibition Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR October 29, 2017 to February 4, 2018 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) 4 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)