Title: Postmodern and contemporary painting in Germany
1Post-modern and contemporary painting in Germany
Berlin Wall 1989 marking the end of the Cold War
2Annihilation of Modern Art in Nazi Germany 1933-
45(left) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German
Expressionist1880-1938) Girl Under a Japanese
Umbrella 1906 (right) Emil Nolde (German
Expressionist 1867-1956) Excited People 1910
(below) Degenerate Art Exhibition Munich 1937
3The poster of the Degenerate Music exhibition
(1938). Jewish Composers and Jazz/Swing musicians
were for instance accused by the Nazis of
producing degenerated music...
Composition with Blue 1926Piet Mondrian oil
24 in. sq.
Degenerate Art
Marc Chagall Purim 1916-18 oil 20 x 28 in
exhibited in
Nazi Degenerate Art Exhibition
4Good German Art Socialist Realism (only)
5Joseph Beuys (German 1921-1986) (left) Fat
Chair 1964(right) Felt Suit 1970 (center)
Joseph Beuys the artist The whole process of
living is my creative act.
First German artist after WW II to
achieve international fame based
on exploration of his German identity
6Joseph Beuys How to Explain Paintings to a Dead
Hare performance on Nov. 26 1965. Three hours
talking about pictures in in the Galerie Schmela
in Düsseldorf. The hare was one of Beuys totemic
animals. Artists face was coated with honey and
gold leaf and one of his shoes had an iron heel
symbolic materials. Artist shaman
7Joseph Beuys The Pack (2 views) 1969.
Volkswagen bus with twenty-four wooden sleds
each with felt flashlight fat and stamped with
brown oil paint
8The Dionysian versus the Apollonian
Joseph Beuys I Like America and America Likes
Me performance Action René Block Gallery
NYC May 1974
9Beuys Honey Pump at the Workplace for Documenta
1977 electric motors pumped honey through a
gigantic assemblage of pipes in the stairwell of
the museum symbolizing the circulation of life
and flowing energy.
10(left) Beuys lecturing in New York 1974 about
the social revolution to be led by artists
(everyone) (right) Beuys Action Piece 26-6
February 1972 presented as part of exhibition
held at the Tate Gallery February - March 1972.
Drawings are acts of mind mapping mental
processes toward transformative personal and
social consciousness.Man is only truly alive
when he realizes he is a creative artistic
being.
11Beuys inaugurating 7000 Oaks at Documenta 7
Kassel Germany 1982. Project completed after
artists death the last tree was planted by his
son at the opening of Documenta 8 in 1987
Beuys was a founding member of the Green Party
12- Beuys 7000 Oak project extended by the Dia
Foundation in 1996. Trees (of several kinds)
planted on West 22nd Street each paired with a
basalt stone column
NYC students planting trees Social Sculpture
13Anselm Kiefer (German b. 1945) Occupations one
in photographic series 1969 (artist is 24)
(right) Kiefer Heroic Symbols 1969 watercolor
and gouache on paper left sheet 6 in. sq.
right sheet 22 x 16 in.
This small self-portrait of the artist giving the
Nazi salute is pasted on the same sheet as the
watercolor of the sky which according to the
artist has been wounded by shots.
Taken in Italy and France
14Anselm Kiefer The Milky Way 1985-87Emulsion
paint oil acrylic shellac on canvas with
applied wires and lead 12ft 6 in
HGotterdammerung
15Anselm Kiefer Inner Room 1981 with (left)
source photo of Nazi meeting room Albert Speer
architect
16Kiefer Your Golden Hair Margarete 1981 oil
emulsion and straw on canvas 51 x 67
17Anselm Kiefer Twilight of the West Abendland
1989 lead sheet synthetic polymer paint ash
plaster cement earth varnish on canvas and
wood 13 feet HGotterdammerung
18Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg Living With Pop
1963 a performance of Capitalist Realism
Düsseldorf artists mounted an installation of
objects in a local department store and installed
themselves with the commodities as a
demonstration of Capitalist Realism. To what
situations for artists does Capitalist Realism
respond
19(left) Richter and Sigmar Polke 1965 from
Richter/Polke exhibition catalogue(right)
Richter 1998 from Gerhard Richter 40 Years of
Painting exhibition cat.
20Gerhard Richter (b. Dresden 1932) Nazi
officer Uncle Rudi 1965 oil on canvas(right)
Administrative Building 1964 Oil on canvas 38
1/4 x 59 photo sources family snapshot and
encyclopedia sourcesSee Jason Gaiger
Post-conceptual painting Gerhard Richters
extended leave-taking
One has to believe in what one is doing one
has to commit oneself inwardly in order to do pa
inting once obsessed one ultimately carries it t
o the point of believing that one might change hu
man beings through painting. But if one lacks th
is passionate commitment there is nothing left t
o do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For b
asically painting is total idiocy. - Ri
chter
21Richter Aunt Marianne oil on canvas 1965 47 x
51 infrom a photograph of Richter as a baby with
Aunt MarianneWhenever I behaved badly I was
told you will become like crazy Marianne.
22Richter Phantom Interceptors 1964 oil on
canvas 55 x 6 3(right) Alpha Romeo (With
Text) 1965 oil on canvas 60 x 59
23Richter Eight Student Nurses 1966 oil on
canvas 8 paintings each c. 36 x 27 in
24Compare Richter with Andy Warhol Jackie The
Week That Was 1963
25Richter October 18 1977 Baader-Meinhof series
Confrontation 1 and 2 1988oil on canvas all
45 H. Series based on media photographs of
members of the terrorist Red Army Faction their
arrest imprisonment and death.
26October 1977 Protesters in Stuttgart at funeral
of Andreas Baader
27(No Transcript)
28Final paintings in Richters October 18
1977Baader-Meinhof series titled Tote 1 2 and 3
29(left) Richter Abstract Painting 1976 oil on
canvas 26 x 23 in.After the gray paintings
after the dogma of fundamental painting whose
purist and moralizing aspects fascinated me to a
degree bordering on self-denial all I could do
was start all over again. This was the beginning
of the first color sketches.
Compare Rauschenberg Factum I II 1957
30(left) Richter Iceberg in Fog 1982 oil on
canvas 27 x 39 incompare (right) Caspar David
Friedrich (German Romanticism 1774-1840)(top)
Monk by the Sea (1809) and (bottom) Polar Sea
(1823)
31Richter Untitled 1987 oil on canvas 118
square
32Richter Betty 1988 oil on canvas 40 x 23
compare (right) Untitled 1987Painting is the
form of the picture you might say. The picture
is the depiction and painting is the technique
for shattering it.
33Sigmar Polke (German b. 1941) Modern Art
1968(right) Polke Lovers II 1965 oil and
enamel on canvas 6 ft 3 in x 55 in
34Sigmar Polke Bunnies 1966 acrylic on linen 58
x 39
Lichtenstein cover Of Newsweek 1966
Warhol Marilyn 1964
35Sigmar Polke Alice in Wonderland 1971 mixed
media on fabric strips 10ft 6in x 8ft 6 in
36Polke from Watchtower series 1984 synthetic
polymers on various fabrics
37Polke The Spirits That Lend Strength Are
Invisible III (Nickel) 1988 nickel and
artificial resin on canvas 157in. x 118 in.
Collection SFMOMA
38Sigmar Polke Mrs. Autumn and Her Two Daughters
1991 artificial resin and acrylic on synthetic
fabric 9ft 10in x 16ft 5in
39Georg Baselitz (Hans-Georg Kern b. Dresden
Germany1938) The New Type 1966 woodcut 42 x
34 incompare (center below) Emil Nolde The
Prophet 1912 woodcut(right) Erich Heckel
(German 18831970) Woman 1914 woodcut
1914
German Expressionism
1966 Neo-Expressionism
1912
40Baselitz The Gleaner oil and tempera on canvas
130 x 98 in 1978
Van Gogh The Gleaner ink drawing 1885
41Baselitz Lazarus 1984
42Baselitz with Neo-Expressionist (Neo-Primitivist)
sculpture Man (1980s) and source in Sudanese
traditional sculpture(right) Kirchner (German
Expressionist) Dancer 1914
43A.R. Penck (right) Penck Standart 1971 (left)
The Work Goes On 1982 woodcut
44Jörg Immendorff (b. 1941 Silesia East Germany)
Can one change anything with these 1972
acrylic on canvas 20 x 31 ½ in
Joseph Beuys How to Explain Pictures to a Dead
Hare 1965 Dusseldorf. Immendorffs teacher
45Jörg Immendorff Café Deutschland I 1978 oil
on canvas 280 x 320 cm
46Compare Expressionism of Max Beckmann (left)
Night 1917-18 with Neo-Expressionism of
Immendorff Café Deutschland I 1978What (form
and content) do they have in common
47Immendorf Café Deutschland IV 1978 oil on
canvas 111 x 130 in.Dystopia
Blade Runner film still 1982
48Immendorff Café Deutschland Cafeprobe
1980synthetic resin on canvas 280 x 350 cm
49Jörg Immendorff Café Deutschland 1984 oil
285cmH
50Leipzig group 2006 from left Tilo Baumgärtel
Christoph Ruckhärberle Martin Kobe Matthias
Weischer and David Schnell If you want to
talk of an advantage you can say it the Iron
Curtain allowed us to continue in the tradition
of Cranach and Beckmann. It protected the art
against the influence of Joseph Beuys. What do
they mean
51Max Beckmann (German 1884-1950) Departure 1932
Beckmann at MoMA NYC 1947 in front of Departur
e
52Lucas Cranach the Elder (German 1472-1553) The
Golden Age 16th Century
53Neo Rauch (b. 1960 Leipzig Germany lives and
works in Leipzig) shown in studio before one of
his paintings
54Neo Rauch Das Neue 2003It is important to
create a definite environment or stage on which
things can happen. For me the function of
painting as I understand it is to work with
myths. I try to create a widespread system where
impulses are trapped. With an analytic
understanding you cant grasp it.
Giorgio di Chirico (Italian 1888-1978) Philos
ophers Conquest
1913 (compare)
55(right) Neo Rauch Diktat 2004(left top)
Balthus (French 19082001) The Mountain 1937
oil on canvas 98 x 144 in(left below) René
Magritte (Belgian 1898-1967) The Menaced
Assassin 1926
56Tilo Baumgaertel Hydroplane oil on linen 200 x
300 cm 2002
57Christoph Ruckhäberle (Germany b.1972) Lake at
Sunset 2004 oil on canvas 279 x 381cm
E.L. Kirchner 1909
Cézanne 1876
Cribbed from all the best bits of art history
- Saatchi Gallery publicist
58David Schnell Bretter (Wooden Planks) oil on
canvas 2005
59Leipzig school Tim Eitel (left) Bomber Jacket
2003(right) Film 2003