Start of painting
While in Italy, France and Holland, Renaissance painting was an art carried by great masters from the 15th century onwards, it was not until the 16th century that the first great German pictorial movement broke through with Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Matthias Grünewald (1460-1528), Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) and Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538). These painters are marked by a strong sense of religious imagination where the demands of the Reformation do not yield to an intense concern for realism, sometimes almost entomological. By combining medieval art with the achievements of the Renaissance, these first great names in German painting created a style unique in Europe. The 17th and 18th centuries are especially glorious periods for sculpture. In the 19th century, the most important work of German Romantic painting by far was The Cliffs, Wind and Clouds by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). It was not until the 20th century that Germany returned to the splendour it had enjoyed three hundred years earlier.
Renewal and Avant-garde
Germany was the cradle of many avant-gardes during the first part of the 20th century. The expressionist school is the most perfect representative. Expressionism, a movement that did not take its definitive name until 1911, glorified human instinct, emotion and despair. Inspired by the Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1944) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), this movement is divided into two movements: Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). The first includes in its ranks Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Emil Nolde and lasts from 1905 to 1913; the second, created in 1911 in Munich on the initiative of Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, brings together August Macke and Paul Klee. Die Brücke moved to Berlin in 1911, as the city was then the centre of German artistic life and was dissolved in 1913. This expressionist movement with a pantheistic vision was created in Dresden in 1905. At a time when the threats of the economic crisis and the rise of Nazism were becoming clearer, Otto Dix (1891-1969) was the symbol of a new, more realistic pictorial approach, originating in social life.
Shortly afterwards, in 1919, the painter Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) became the first female member of the Berlin Academy of Arts at the age of 52. A sculptor, engraver and draughtswoman, she taught at the Berlin School of Art for Women. Known for her series of engravings entitled La révolte des tisserands
(1893-1897), she then turned to sculpture. A socialist at heart, she denounced the misery of her contemporaries through her moving works. The Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin reveals the career of this timeless artist. The protest painter Geroge Grosz, born and died in Berlin (1893-1959), organised the First International Dada Fair in Berlin on 5 June 1920. Nicknamed Marshal Propagandada, he participated in the Dada movement but also in the New Objectivity.The turning point
The arrival of Hitler to power forced many artists to emigrate to France or the United States. "Degenerate art" no longer had a place in Germany. After the war, artists asserted themselves on both sides of the city of Berlin, although in the East socialist realism dictated its codes. In the 1960s, the Berliner Schule (Berlin school) saw the emergence of sensual works. The following decade saw a greater focus on the individual and his or her place in society. In the West, abstraction dominated the art scene. From then on, Berlin's artistic life continued to welcome the most innovative explorations.
After the Second World War, it was not until the 1970s that artistic Berlin regained its panache, despite the revolt of Berlin's artists. The German currents of thought that were making a name for themselves abroad had little representation at home. The artists Edward Kienholz and George Rickey played an important role in the revival of the capital. In 1972, Kienholz produced The Art Show
, a work that reconstructed a vernissage bringing together models from their circle, personalities from the art world. All eyes turned to Berlin. Conversely, German artists joined foreign trends such as Tachism in France or action painting in the United States. Wolf Vostell, a member of Fluxus, moved to Berlin in 1971 and organised a happening at the foot of the wall.Helmut Newton
Catherine Deneuve, Kate Moss, Monica Bellucci, Grace Jones and Claudia Schiffer posed in front of the lens of this world-renowned photographer. His real name is Helmut Neustädter and he was born in Berlin in 1920. His American mother and German Jewish father left Nazi Germany in 1938 to settle in Australia. In 1961, he moved to Paris where he became a renowned fashion photographer, collaborating in particular with Vogue magazine. His highly stylized images with strong erotic power were collected in a famous anthology, SUMO, a work of almost 500 pages. He died in 2004 and was buried in his native town, to which he bequeathed all his archives in 2003. His works are exhibited at the Museum of Photography - Helmut Newton Foundation in the district of Charlottenburg.
Berlin Painting in the 20th Century
Georg Baselitz, born in 1938, is a sculptor, painter, guru and teacher. He is known for his upside down paintings and his brushstrokes that practically model the painting on the canvas. With Pandämonium I and II in 1961 and 1962, he marked the beginning of New Expressionism. His first paintings are confiscated for obscenity. But Baseltiz assumes the asocial status of the artist. Through his paintings, he reflects an image of his country with which he identifies. He participates with the Nouveaux Fauves ("Die Neuen Wilden") in restoring Berlin's place on the international scene. The city thus regains its cultural identity by renewing its ties with figurative art. German Expressionism also allows painters to exalt their particularities. A second generation is continuing this pictorial momentum. Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salome, Bernd Zimmer founded the gallery at Moritzplatz in 1977, which is run by a system of self-management, which has since been taken over by many groups. The artists, working in collective studios in disused factories in Kreuzberg, influence each other. Their paintings reflect an urban jungle with an unbridled rhythm. The sharp brushstrokes and bold colours have earned them the term violent painting, defined as the alliance of neo-expressionism and action painting.
The wall becomes a work of art
Erected on the night of August 12-13, 1961, the Berlin Wall was soon covered with graffiti and then, over the years, with increasingly complex works. Until its fall, the west side of the Wall was decorated with tags of protest and calls for peace. Then graffiti emerged, quickly associated with lettering on the Wall that would evolve into street art. One of the first artists to express himself on the "Wall of Shame" was Thierry Noir, a Lyonnais from Lyon who moved to West Germany in 1982. Assisted by Christophe Bouchet, they took turns standing guard from 1984 onwards. Considered the first artist of the Wall, Thierry Noir originally went to Berlin to immerse himself in rock music and the underground. He then lived in a squat in front of the Wall which seemed to provoke him. "The Wall was in front of my house. It was a sad life, a day-to-day melancholy. Nothing was happening at all. "He and his buddy were collecting paint from a construction site to paint a section of wall, the first of its kind. Night expeditions multiply. Other artists soon followed them. More elaborate representations brighten up the Wall. In 1986, the artist Keith Haring painted a fresco on a yellow background, 100 metres long. The fall of the Wall redistributed the political but also artistic cards.
In 1990, Christine McLean invited painters to express themselves on a 1,300-metre section of the Wall. The exhibition, called the East Side Gallery, is now the largest open-air art gallery in the world. For its 3 million annual visitors, it brings together everything the Wall has inspired to 118 artists of 21 nationalities. Don't miss the famous kiss of friendship between Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev and his slogan: "No more war. No more walls. A united world. »
After
As in the whole of Germany, street art has become more democratic in Berlin. It gives rise to festivals and exhibitions, as well as continues to renew itself in the squats. However, graffiti is so widespread in the city that the municipality has stopped painting it. El Bocho is one of the most common names. We appreciate his humor, visible on his large posters. Alias painted preferably with stencils while Vermibus hijacks advertising posters that he reworks in such a way as to cause trouble before sticking them back up in the streets of the city.
In a way, street art is a victim of its popularity. It is now exhibited in galleries and museums. Since 2017, the Museum of Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin has adapted to the demand by associating temporary works outside the walls with its exhibitions. Not to mention recovery, sometimes a mural work can drive up the price of a property. But if you prefer to hunt wild art, you'll find it everywhere but in the centre.
The magnetism of the Berlin dynamic has not wavered over the last twenty years. All fields of art are being experimented with. Artists from here and elsewhere are multiplying their skills to adapt to international demand, such as Kai Althoff, Cosima von Bonin, Anselm Reyle and Johannes Wohnseifer.
