The Berlinische Galerie stages the world’s first comprehensive exhibition of art photography in the GDR. Twenty years after the Wall, The Shuttered Society identifies traditions and trends while illustrating shifts in visual idiom and theme.
The retrospective thus contributes to the present discourse about photography that has unfolded in recent years with a flurry of exhibitions and publications. The works and their protagonists, the cultural policies that framed them, regional particularities, technical parameters and personal strategies have been explored in detail, so that an interested audience will now be aware of many of these photographers and of pictures that have acquired a status little short of canonical.
The show at the Berlinische Galerie is designed to offer a broad overview, and the selection seeks to convey the specific character of each photographic work, its motivation and its language. Although the exhibition is devoted primarily to the medium itself, it also tells a great deal about daily life in the GDR.
Read more about the exhibition here.
Artists: Ursula Arnold, Tina Bara, Sibylle Bergemann, Christian Borchert, Micha Brendel, Kurt Buchwald, Lutz Dammbeck, Klaus Elle, Arno Fischer, Thomas Florschuetz, Ernst Goldberg, Klaus Hähner-Springmühl, Matthias Hoch, Edmund Kesting, Fritz Kühn, Matthias Leupold, Ulrich Lindner, Karl Heinz Mai, Sven Marquardt, Roger Melis, Florian Merkel, Peter Oehlmann, Helga Paris, Manfred Paul, Richard Peter sen., Evelyn Richter, Jens Rötzsch, Rudolf Schäfer, Michael Scheffer, Erasmus Schröter, Gundula Schulze-Eldowy, Maria Sewcz, Ulrich Wüst
The Shuttered Society – Art Photography in the GDR 1949–1989
On view until January 28, 2013
Berlinische Galerie , Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur
Alte Jakobstrasse 124-128, 10969 Berlin
