Still Showing: Young and Wild? - Art in 1980s Germany
Three men in their forties might not seem the most likely founders of a group called the Junge Wilde, or Young Fauves. But park your prejudices at the door.
September 27, 2022
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
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Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
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Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
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Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
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Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
The Ashmolean Museum’s Young and Wild?: Punk, Painting and Prints is a loving portrait of artists working in 1980s Germany, interdisciplinary in its scope across visual and audio media. The gallery is nominally divided in two parts, representing the younger and older artists of the movement, but its strength is in how it more subtly challenges binaries – including stereotypes of the divided capital, Berlin.
Rejected by the East German socialist art establishment for his ‘un-academic’, experimental work, A.R. Penck practised as an underground ‘autodidact’. After his expatriation, and subsequent relocation to West Germany, his works became increasingly dynamic. Here, his standart stickmen, paintings, woodcuts, and sculptures tower out of the space.
Music pulses throughout Penck’s practice, with his 1990 series, Berlin Suite echoing Matisse in its jazz influences. Elsewhere, the boundaries between art and merch blur; little cabinets carry a wealth of custom record sleeves, and charming photographs, like the Geile Teire (Horny Animals) playing support for Nina Hagen, and Penck’s own jazz band, Triple Trip Touch, performing at his British exhibitions.
One such exhibition was Northern Darkness, shown in Derry, Dublin, and Edinburgh as the artist moved between East London and Ireland. These places became new home countries, their particular political problems articulated in his follow up, ‘The Problems of England (Northern Darkness IV)’ (1987), here on display. (Still, there’s something in their abstract nature that appeals to problems facing humanity more widely.)
Challenging the stereotype of East Germany as a closed-off Cold War country, we see international connections in art from the West, but also the East. ‘Japan was fabulous,’ proclaimed the artist Salomé, who drew from both the blurred gender boundaries of kabuki theatre and his side job as a stripteaser in East Berlin’s gay bars, in order to produce his erotic, subversive works.
Travelling to Japan inspired Salomé’s many portrayals of actors, sumo fighters, and a self-portrait as a geisha. Elsewhere, we see how Elvira Black drew vivid colours from her time in Santa Domingo. (Ina Barfuss is the only other woman to feature.) We also see a triptych of Rainer Getting’s etchings, sensitive portraits of his Black subjects in New York.
Young & Wild? delves deeper into the work of Georg Baselitz, arguably the giant of German neo-Expressionism. Recurrent motifs across his works are explained in reference to his own lived experiences. Feet and toes nod to his equally dynamic practice, like Penck, but also his family’s flight from Dresden during World War II.
Baselitz also reinterprets Soviet socialist realism, adding another layer to Arkady A. Plastov’s painting ‘A Fascist Gone Past’ (1942-1947), by telling the story from the perspective of its subject, a shepherd boy left in a field as Nazi planes fly away. Elsewhere, the eagle, a traditional German symbol, is inverted, subverting the national narrative.
Young and Wild may be small, but it’s perfectly curated – as we’d expect from Ashmolean curator Dr. Lena Fritsch. Still in a single glance, we can take in Elvira Black’s lively screenprints, next to Werner Büttner’s monochrome, mournful etchings. What other movement would let such diverse artworks stand beneath its single umbrella?
Young and Wild? Punk, Painting and Prints: Art in 1980s Germany is on view at the Ashmolean Museum until 20 November 2022.
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos when you visit!
