Walter Womacka, an artist who was a popular favorite in the GDR and whose work still graces Alexanderplatz (see here and here), will be given two shows this June. One a retrospective (will they have "Junges Paar am Strand", supposedly the best-known GDR painting ever?) and the other a show of his recent work. See the MOZ.
I really hope I get to see both shows. Womacka's use of color and "plakative" representation made him the target of his more avant garde contemporaries, and I have to say that from about 1959 on his work is pretty romper room. But Womacka is an interesting study in popular art, and a few works in the Nationalgalerie are from the late 1950s are quite interesting: see "Rübenhackerinnen" from 1956.
It's worth mentioning, I suppose, that Womacka wasn't included in "Kunst in der DDR," which effectively suggests that what he made wasn't in fact art per se. There's the trouble with the conception of that show: not enough context. Even including someone like Womacka as context would be better than leaving him out, wouldn't it? He was cited in a wall text or two, I think posited as something the Berliner Schule (Metzkes et al) were reacting against. But that's not the same as having a picture in the space.
Posted by Heather at October 22, 2003 05:37 PM
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