GDR art in focus: Zerreißprobe” shows forgotten masterpieces

GDR art in focus: Zerreißprobe” shows forgotten masterpieces

The exhibition “Zerreißprobe” opens on June 5, 2025 in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, offering a novel perspective on the art of the GDR. Among the works presented is Wolfgang Mattheuer's famous painting "The Excellent", which was first shown in 1974 in the Dresden Albertinum. The picture shows a woman with slumped shoulders and a haggard look at tulip stems. This depiction contradicts the image that the mass media conveyed of “work activists” and addresses serious questions about identity, role and loneliness in GDR society.

In the 1980s, students in the GDR were allowed to think about the picture as part of art education. One of the central issues was the burden on working women, who often carried double or triple the burden. After reunification, the painting was forgotten and disappeared into depots and archives. The return to the exhibition now brings this important work back into the public eye.

Diversity of artists and works

“Zerreißprobe” includes works by 46 artists, including greats such as Uwe Pfeiffer and Angela Hampel. A total of around 80 pictures and sculptures are exhibited, which do not have a uniform stylistic attitude. Instead, the works are presented in differentiated manuscripts and image statements. The artists are anchored in the international New Figuration, which is characterized by Pop Art and various realisms and distanced itself from Socialist Realism in the Eastern Bloc.

The deputy director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Joachim Jäger, emphasizes that the art of the GDR plays an important role in the development of contemporary art. It offers serious discussions about life in art, theater and literature. Cornelia Schimmele, for example, addresses the narrowness of surveillance in her performative works, while Gabriele Stötzer and Tina Bara used alternative art spaces for self-empowerment against state control.

Art as a mirror of society

The works reveal a distant, sometimes critical relationship to reality. They invite reflection on everyday life and promote individual representation. In her work, Elske Rosenfeld addresses the devaluation of revolutionary desire and the relevance of East German expressions of discontent. Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt carried out the last mail art campaign in the GDR in 1990 to protest against the abolition of the GDR.

Melanie Franke, professor of art at the University of Potsdam, describes the exhibition as experimental and courageous. In her anthology, she examines the role of art and history from different perspectives, thereby creating an important discourse about society and its upheavals. The exhibition not only offers an insight into the artistic practice of the GDR, but also into the vulnerable, human experiences of the time.