Press Release EnglishPressetext Deutsch

Opening hours: Fri, 11 am – 6 pm

and by prior arrangement

Grieder Contemporary is delighted to present the group show: BRD presenting works by three generations of German painters. Characterised by historical flair, the exhibition will focus on the works of Georg Baselitz, Katharina Grosse, Karl Horst Hödicke, Martin Kippenberger, Imi Knoebel, Michael Krebber, Stefan Müller, Albert Oehlen, Thomas Schütte and Sigmar Polke.

German art of the 1990s and early 2000s was shaped by the political and social effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which resulted in the reunification of the two German states into a "BRD" (The Federal Republic of Germany), as well as the generational change of the visual artists. Painting in particular occupied a pioneering position in the history of German 20th century art. After the Second World War, both East and West German artists set important attitudes for international art history. On the west side of the wall the focus was on the US and its application of abstract painting, whilst the east side emulated the socialist ideologies of Moscow in a more figurative strain.

The West German Post-war style, influenced by artists who had escaped from the DDR in the BRD, such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz, was founded in the late 1980s and developed into the new millennium. It was advanced by a new generation, some of whom were direct students who like their teachers, sought abstraction for new possibilities of expression. Artists such as Albert Oehlen, Martin Kippenberger, Michael Krebber, or also Thomas Schütte, whose sculptural works tie in with the tradition and themes of the 1960s and 1970s, but who distance themselves through the development of their own formal language.

"BRD" creates a direct comparison of three generations of German painters. The third generation began in the 2000s and represented here by Stefan Müller and Katharina Grosse, characterises the continuous development of abstract painting in Germany and emphasizes the relevance and importance of German painting and art today.