The Wall

The many cultural events organized  to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall   provide the opportunity for the resurfacing of many of the elements that shaped artistic creation. It also recreated some of the  circumstances, both internal and external,  that modulated  history and its cultural path in East and West Germany. Marked by two eras of repression during which only a single style, forcefully imposed, was allowed to prevail as  the only aesthetic valid truth, individual and collective dynamism broke those coercing barriers, and despite the attempt to annihilate  the natural cultural fabric accumulated over centuries of creativity and artistic expression, it evolved and found new ways of expression.

Defying the compulsory Social Realism according to which the Regime portrayed the ideal life of the happy worker , many an  artist transgressed the imposed limits in an eagerness of research and experimentation at the risk of detention . In the 70’s already, both sides of the wall were producing parallel artwork. The heritage  of the rigorous Academy, of “New Objectivism”, of  the legacy of Expressionism, of Surrealism and the Modernistic trajectory , constituted  a common language  that reemerged  with the release  of forms of expression breaking all established parameters.

In addition, international artistic Movements and the controversial Joseph Beuys with his radical proposals expanding all terms defining Art until that moment, opened an endless field for its creators. Via privileged travelers and the “black market” , all these influences filtered through the Academies in Dresden, Berlin, Halle and Leipzig. As early as 1981, the first alternative space emerged, challenging the State openly in defiance of a criminal charge. But even though these Avant Garde  Movements  renovated  and  set progressive trends with their  flocks of  followers ,a deeply rooted  critical position emerged. Sigmar  Polke and Gerhard Richter  who were already residing in the West  for a long time  as well as the Leipzig Art Academy among other Institutions, challenged  Beuys and his theories.

Confronting the mainstream, they emphasized the intrinsic value of painting as the mere essence of the artwork.  Along the lines of the wider concept of Modernism as defined  by the American art  critic Clement Greenberg ,the elements such as  color,  surface, technique, shape and size of the canvas became the protagonists , countering the prevailing  conceptualism, which , through its multiple  alternative techniques, had  shaped   a path aimed  at generations to follow.
What is fascinating is the discipline and individual dynamism that led towards these results under such complex historic events, an almost mystical element that drove creativity without boundaries in the midst of decades of limitation.

By contrast, I find most surprising that in the free world of our times,  some truly talented artists become discouraged by unfairly harsh and often uncommitted art critics. I certainly hope that what has been portrayed here becomes not only an anecdote but a true inspiration to break such absurd and unfounded barriers.

Iris Ramler

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