The exhibition “ZEITENWENDE – 30 Jahre Mauerfall. Werke aus der Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank” takes the 30th anniversary since the fall of the Berlin Wall as an opportunity to show paintings from the time of the division of Germany and the political upheaval in the GDR. In this exhibition, the artworks lead you to question and examine how artists from East and West saw the Walled City of Berlin and followed the “turning point” of 1989/90.
In the 1970s, Rainer Fetting depicted the wall as a defining element of the Kreuzberg cityscape. In his early expressive paintings, Fetting concentrated on the surface and perspective effects of the building. The walls in Wolfgang Peuker’s provocative self-portrait from 1985 form an unusual background. The artist positioned himself in front of a cityscape from birds-eye view, which unadorned depicts the reality of the division.
Roland Nicolaus was inspired by the view from his studio on Pariser Platz. Such views inspired the subjects for his artistic work. Barriers, rabbits and relics of the past shape the east-west panorama. In contrast, Wolfgang Mattheuer, from Leipzig, created pictorial compositions in the 1980s that picked up moods and expressed longings. “Und die Flügel ziehen himmelwärts” depicts prisoners trying to escape the position they’re in. However, they face an abyss; a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. This urge to break out symbolises the situation of many people in the GDR. Pressure is also an issue in Hubertus Giebes’ painting from 1990. Despite the immobile figures in the foreground, a wall has been broken open with a powerful push. Invisible forces change what seems to be firmly established. Werner Liebmann created a painting in the same year, titled “Ascension”. In an ironic allusion to the tempting promises of the future, it shows a figure floating high above the Brandenburg Gate. How the departure will end remains open.
Manfred Butzmann and Konrad Knebel, two East Berlin artists, became chroniclers of the Berlin cityscape through years of studies. They carefully exposed the historical layers and the significance this had on the present. In the exhibition, works by Gerhard Alternbourg, Wolfgang Leber, Giuseppe Madonia, Helmut Metzner, Harald Metzkes, Wolfgang Petrick and Stefan Plenkers from the Berliner Volksbank’s art collection as well as selected public and private loans will also be shown.
Exhibition film „Die Berliner Mauer und ihr Fall”
28 minutes © Stiftung KUNSTFORUM der Berliner Volksbank gGmbH.
