Book: Art of Two Germanys Cold War Cultures edited by Stephanie Barron and Sabine Eckmann, Abrams 2009

I turned to the chapter ‘Symbolic Revolts in the Workers’ and Peasants’ State’ pretty randomly but under my usual criteria of visual sifting. This is a summary of my findings:

It is a well known paradox that the destruction of tradition in the field of art was achieved by traditional means - or as I have discussed before, subversion from within. In East Germany post ‘61 ‘experimental art’ was represses. Artists were forced back into following a 19th century model or face exclusion from the restrictions of the art world. Art has always been synonymous with power to various degrees. The more confines put on a group however, the more they rebel, test the boundaries of that environment until ultimately the system goes full circle and becomes acceptable once again. So, modernism re-surfaced in East Germany, under the radar of political confinement but no less prolific; it broke free. Modernism became the official signifier of a counter culture (if this makes any sense). The artist I am most interested in is A R Penck. He was well read in cybernetics, information science and psychology. He talks about rejecting ‘painting historically’ (Post 61) and refined his ‘standart’ model. In 1971 Penck wrote, ‘If we agree to place a new standard of values alongside the traditional one, money, then this locating of standard will put us in a position to assert our own space.’ Research on this artist to continue…

http://www.frieze.com/shows/review/art_of_two_germanys_cold_war_cultures/