Germanys/Cold War Art at LACMA, Los Angeles, until 19 Apr

Exhibition Description:

This is the first special exhibition to go on view in LACMA's new Renzo Piano designed-building, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM). It is divided into four chronological sections, the exhibition includes approximately 300 paintings, sculptures, photographs, multiples, videos, installations, and books, by 120 artists.

The show features large-scale installations and recreations of major works by Hans Haacke, Heinz Mack, Sigmar Polke, Raffael Rheinsberg, Gerhard Richter, and Dieter Roth,
as well as a number of videos and performance-based works.

During the Cold War, the creation of art and its reception and theorization in East and West Germany were closely linked to their respective political systems - the Western liberal democracy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Eastern communist dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Both Germanys reacted against Nazism and revived pre-World War II national artistic traditions. However they both developed their own distinctive versions of modern and postmodern art, sometimes in accord with their political cultures, at other times in opposition to them.

Art of Two Germanys traces the political, cultural, and theoretical discourses during the Cold War in the East and West German art worlds, and reveals the complex and richly varied roles that conventional art, new media, new art forms, popular culture, and contemporary art exhibitions played in the establishment of their art in the postwar era.

On closing, the exhibition will travel to Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (May 23-September 6, 2009), and Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (October 3, 2009 - January 10, 2010).

Full Contact Details:

5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90036
tel 323 857-6000
tel 323-857-0098 (TDD)