In Fluchtpunkte, the Stadtmuseum Jena addresses abstraction in the GDR. This is one of the first shows to do so in the aftermath of Kunst in der DDR; I wonder whether it demonstrates any recognizable influence from the Berlin show (even if they started planning it ealier, which they no doubt did).
In the brief text on the museum's site, I think I see my thesis is filtering through:
Künstlerische Eigenständigkeit und Originalität war hier selten an der nonfigurativen Praxis des Westens geschult, sondern meist figürlich vom Erbe der Klassischen Moderne geprägt.
Artistic independence and originality (abstraction in this case) in the East, it asserts, was rarely schooled by the non-figurative work of the West, but instead was formally related to the legacy of classical modernity. This is the kind of thing that Kunst in der DDR was working towards: the idea that creative development in the GDR was largely independent of what went on in the West. If this thesis is true, it's harder to argue that abstraction in the East was derivative or second-rate.
Not that I'm suggesting this is a new idea; anyone who's considered Hermann Glöckner's work and his broad influence on younger artists knows that there were plenty of sources at home...
Posted by Heather at December 18, 2003 08:35 AM
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