The Wende Museum’s Cold Wear Spaces interview this week will focus on a hotly debated aspect of the afterlife of the Cold War: the fate of East German art in reunified Germany. The GDR ceased to exist with the signing of the Unification Treaty on October 3, 1990 but the “Wall in the heads” proved more difficult to tear down.
While many (but not all) West Germans demanded East German art to be removed from museums and other public places as a remnant of a totalitarian society, many (but not all) East Germans criticized a West German imperialist mentality without a deeper understanding of the dynamics between art and politics in the East German state. I’ll speak about this “civil war of the arts” (quote by art historian Eberhard Roters) with Kathleen Reinhardt, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Albertinum – State Art Collections in Dresden.
Wednesday, November 3, 12 p.m. PST: Kathleen Reinhardt – Contentious Space: Exhibiting East German Art in Reunified Germany
RSVP: https://www.wendemuseum.org/programs/contentious-space-exhibiting-east-german-art-reunified-germany
Detail from Credit…Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
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