THE 80S

About

Despite the repeatedly proclaimed “end of painting,” figurative forms of painting emerged almost parallel to each other in Hamburg, Berlin, and Cologne in the late 1970s. The works were characterized by an unbridled force and relentlessness. Young painters of quite different orientations created figurative pictures which were not geared to art-historical styles, isms, or groups. Combining border crossing, nihilism, and humor, they reveled in a rediscovery of painting and devoted themselves to their immediate present in a subjective and direct way. Within just a few years, this generation of painters received acclaim not only in Germany but on the international scene as well. Assembling around eighty works by just under twenty artists, the exhibition reveals the dynamics of this painting in all its complexity and diversity. This present-day view of an important period of German postwar art – which is still held in too little esteem – provides an opportunity for novel art-historical approaches and questions. The Städel Museum’s Contemporary Art Department with its special focus on painting after 1945 offers an ideal context for the presentation of this eventful decade’s achievements.

List of artists: Hans Peter Adamski, Peter Angermann, Elvira Bach, Ina Barfuß, Peter Bömmels, Werner Büttner, Luciano Castelli, Walter Dahn, Jiří Georg Dokoupil, Rainer Fetting, G. L. Gabriel, Georg Herold, Gerard Kever, Jan Knap, Milan Kunc, Martin Kippenberger, Helmut Middendorf, Christa Näher, Gerhard Naschberger, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Salomé, Andreas Schulze, Bettina Semmer, Volker Tannert, Thomas Wachweger, Bernd Zimmer

Sponsored by: Deutsche Bank AG

Picture: Rainer Fetting, Erstes Mauerbild, 1977, © Rainer Fetting