Sammlungseinsichten

Plakate ostdeutscher Grafikerinnen

18/05/—25/08/24

 

Erika Baarmann, Anke Baltzer, Ingrid Behla, Kerstin Bigalke, Regine Blumenthal, Eva Bormann, Jutta Damm-Fiedler, Gerda Dassing, Martina Dathe, Linde Detlefsen, Anneliese Ernst, Anke Feuchtenberger, Grit Fiedler, Petra Flemming, Maja Fischer, Annette Fritzsch, Gabriele Gärtner, Renate Gaulke, Sabine Golde, Elli Graetz, Gudrun Großmann, Roswitha Grüttner, Anne Gubig, Eva Haak, Isolde Hamm, Heidrun Hegewald, Christa J. Heinrich, Renée Hendrix, Renate Herfurth, Marita Herold, Regina Holland-Kunz, Christine Hoppe, Irmgard Horlbeck-Kappler, Kirsten Hunger, Regina Jaffke, Kitty Kahane, Susanne Kahl, Christine Kaiser, Margit Kinast, Ruth Knorr, Hildegard Korger, Thea Kowař, Angelika Kuhrt, Dagmar Kunze, Marina Lachermund, Heidrun Lachmeier, Ilona Langer, Renate Lehnhof, Britta Matthies, Jutta Mirtschin, Ursula Misersky, Dore Mönkemeyer-Corty, Konstanze Neumann-Gast, Erdmut Oelschläger, Birgitt Oßwald, Christine Perthen, Kerstin Querengässer, Núria Quevedo, Maria Radoslawowa-Finger, Gisela Röder, Angelika Rößler, Claudia Schauss, Marlies Schlegel, Brigitte Schleusing, Änn Schwerdtle, Andrea Soest, Bärbel Steinberg, Ursula Stieff, Erika Stürmer-Alex, Angelika Stüwe, Katrin Süss, Birgit Swensson, Barbara Tucholke, Inge Uhlich, Brigitte Ullmann, Angelika van der Borght, Eva-Maria Viebeg, Susanne Volkamer, Ingeborg Voss, Friedrun Weißbarth, Renate Wenzel, Petra Wiegandt, Kathrin Winkler, Gisela Wongel, Sonja Wunderlich, Anett Wutzler, Gertrud Zucker

 

In a good 40 years of the GDR, generations of graphic artists have received solid training in the graphic arts at the country’s artistic colleges and universities. The exhibition now offers 87 female designers from East Germany a platform to make the diverse artistic expressions found in the posters visible on this unrestricted, large stage. To this end, the Stiftung Plakat OST Berlin and the Brandenburgische Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst, as two central institutions of the GDR cultural poster, turned to their own collections and examined their holdings.

 

What is particularly striking is the artist‘s painterly, graphic-poetic and often figurative image inventions or design ideas. The mostly illustrative nature of the sheets seemed more suitable for cultural than for political posters. The graphic designers demonstrated a confident handling of all the means of representation that were popular at the time, such as typography, calligraphy, photography and drawing: finely crafted illustrations can be found alongside large, stylized graphic shapes that have been condensed into symbols and eye-catchers.

 

The female artists trained and working in the GDR had equal rights, not only in terms of their artistic standards, even if they were numerically less represented in the poster landscape. For some, the poster was just an occasional foray into the larger format, as they often worked as illustrators in the fields of fiction, children’s books or magazines. The compilation of this show proves that they were still able to establish themselves on an equal footing and that their work was regularly ranked among the “100 best posters of the year”.

 

With almost 200 posters designed from the 1950s to the 1990s, the presentation also offers a loose cross-section of the GDR’s cultural and poster history. Thematically structured, you can find a variety of cultural posters from the areas of theater, film, exhibitions and events alongside smaller groups of classic product advertising, political posters and health protection posters. Only posters from the two collections were selected, for which the individual female authorship was clearly established and often also noted; In this case, work by couples of graphic designers was deliberately not taken into account.

 

The “Collection Insights” should be seen as a further step in the still unfinished research process to give female commercial designers, graphic designers and artists greater visibility and attention. This process was prepared in 2015 with the presentation “Posters by Women – Made in GDR” by the Stiftung Plakat OST in the Schleswig-Holstein House in Schwerin.

 

The exhibition is a cooperation between the Stiftung Plakat OST Berlin and the Brandenburgische Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst. It was curated by Sylke Wunderlich (SPO) and Helene Roolf (BLMK, Cottbus).