Against the Current

Painting and graphic art from the 1980s

23/11/25—25/01/26

 

Karl-Heinz Adler, Wolfgang Barton, Annemirl Bauer, Lutz Dammbeck, Hartwig Ebersbach, E.R.N.A., Lothar Fiedler, Lutz Fleischer, Lutz Friedel, Ellen Fuhr, Ingrid Goltzsche-Schwarz, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling, Clemens Gröszer, Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, Bernd Hahn, Claus Hänsel, Angela Hampel, Peter Herrmann, Veit Hofmann, Günther Hornig, Monika Janus-Sommer, Anton Paul Kammerer, Petra Kasten, Klaus Killisch, Siegfried Klotz, Matthias Körner, Claudia Kutžera, Helge Leiberg, Peter Makolies, Michael Morgner, Maja Nagel, Monika Maria Nowak, Volker Palma, Christine Perthen, Stefan Plenkers, Núria Quevedo, Neo Rauch, Götz Ulrich Richter, Daniel Sambo-Richter, Karin Sakrowski, Hans Scheib, Hans Scheuerecker, Jürgen Schieferdecker, Christine Schlegel, Cornelia Schleime, Gil Schlesinger, Sven Schmidt, Eva-Maria Schreiter, Wolfgang Smy, Erika Stürmer-Alex, Hans Ticha, Gudrun Trendafilov, Dieter Tucholke, Hans Vent, Steffen Volmer, Ulla Walter, Falko Warmt, Claus Weidensdorfer, Trak Wendisch, Jürgen Wenzel, Anna Werkmeister, Gerhard Wienckowski, Karla Woisnitza, Doris Ziegler, Dieter Zimmermann

 

In the 1980s, East German cultural policy was characterized by an often contradictory interplay of revolutionary rebellion, a sense of impending doom, and even temporary anarchy. This presented many artists with an existential tightrope walk. Their paths were diverse and idiosyncratic, often caught between conformity and resistance. Spaces for experimental art forms were won and fought for, and a multifaceted art scene emerged.

 

This exhibition focuses on paintings and graphic works from the 1980s from the BLMK collection. Works by 67 artists were selected, all of whom lived in East Germany. However, some of them had long since left East Germany when they created the paintings shown here.

 

The exhibition title, „Against the Current,“ is a quote from the short story of the same name by Günter de Bruyn. A swimmer bravely paddles across the current instead of letting it carry him. The author celebrated inner freedom and individuality. In the drawing „Across the Current“ by Karla Woisnitza, exhibited here, a brown figure drifts motionless like an island in the dense web of currents that encircle it like a bulwark.

 

The exhibition reveals a stylistic orientation toward the formal canon of Classical Modernism, as well as boldly exaggerated expressiveness and a departure from figuration in celebration of free abstraction. Other works are close to realism, while others are surreal, encrypted, and challengingly ambiguous.

 

Contemporary events are courageously reflected in the critical imagery. The exhibition includes figurative works such as heads, portraits, and full-length figures, as well as works that reflect social processes, interiors, and still lifes, but also works exploring the atmosphere of the metropolis or the longing for exotic destinations.