Berlin-Moskwa. Sztuka drugiej połowy XX wieku
Berlin-Moscow

Summary/Abstract: From September, 2003 to January 2004, the exhibition of modern art was shown at the Groppius-Bau Gallery in Berlin, and, from March to July, 2004, it was shown at the Trietiakov Gallery in Moscow. It included 450 artistic objects by almost 200 artists from 1950 to 2000. There were photographs, drawings, watercolour and oil paintings, installations, and video presentations. The exhibition can be interpreted in sociological and cultural terms. It illustrated artistic development of such artists as Francisco Infante, Ilia Kabakov, Leo Nussberg, Eduard Steinberg, Josef Beuys, Hanna Darboven, Ruppert Geiger, A.R. Penck, Guenter Uecker, Marina Abramowicz, Edward Kienholz, Barnett Newman, Pablo Picasso, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Andy Warhol. It was a conglomeration of different artistic trends and attitudes. German and Russian curators selected quality art. They considered both political and cultural motifs. Gela Kurzev’s ‘The Red Banner’ was shown together with an installation by Vadim Zacharov entitled ‘The History of Russian Avant-garde Art From the Moscow School to Conceptualism” (2003), which included an ironic quotation from “Lenin at the Smolny Institute’ by Isaak Brodski. Korzev and Nisski painted traditional pictures. Victor Popkov was a social-realist (‘The Builder of Brack’, 1960-1961). Andreas Gursky painted such pictures as ‘Moma Pollock’ (1997). In 1977, Penck painted the human-like, walking Swastika, Geiger, Otto Piene, Steinberg and Infante-Aruna painted beautiful, magical pictures. Nussberg and Infante liked monumental, spatial forms. The only new installation was entitled ‘The Victory of the Sun’. It was built by Gerhard Merz in 2003. It referred to the futurist opera by Kruczonych, Chlebnikov and Matiushin, shown at the ‘Lunapark Theatre’. The screen design was by Casimir Malewicz. Ilja Kabakov built an installation entitled ‘My Motherland: the Flies’. Gerhard Richter painted hyperrealistic pictures inspired by family photographs, and, in the 1990’s, he concentrated on photography. He declared that he was not interested in any ideology, faith, and fantasy.

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