The divided generation

New actors in the art of the 1960s in Chemnitz and the surrounding region.

January 23, 2024 until May 05, 2024

Gerhard Altenbourg, Johann Belz, Fredo Bley, Irene Bösch, Hans Brockhage, Carlfriedrich Claus, Hans Detlefsen, Fritz Diedering, Robert Diedrichs, Karl Clauss Dietel, Manfred Gottschall, Heinz Heger, Karl Heinz Jakob, Klaus Matthäi, Dieter Netzker, Joachim Rieß, Harry Scheuner, Heinz Schumann, Harald Stephan, Christine Stephan-Brosch, Carl-Heinz Westenburger
Exhibition opening on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, 7.30 pm
Introduction: Alexander Stoll, curator

After looking at the artistic dynamics of the first post-war years in the exhibition "Generation in the Shadows" (2018), the presentation focuses on the following years of the great upswing. Chemnitz, or Karl-Marx-Stadt in those years, was the natural center and important point of reference for artistic activities in the entire region of southwest Saxony between Freiberg, Zwickau, Plauen and Annaberg, as it is known today. Our observation period begins in 1959 and ends with the founding of the artists' cooperative Galerie oben in Chemnitz in 1973, when a new generation of artists began to emerge on a massive scale and usher in a new era. The changes in the GDR and in Karl-Marx-Stadt in the 1960s made it abundantly clear that the development of art could not be viewed independently of the general economic dynamics and conditions in society as a whole.
On the one hand, the Chemnitz region experienced an unprecedented upswing in those years with the establishment of large manufacturing plants in the important industrial sectors of chemicals, automotive engineering, mechanical engineering and technology development. On the other hand, the construction of the Berlin Wall right at the beginning of the decade cemented tendencies towards isolation and a lack of exchange with the world's development centers, including in the arts. The lack of an art academy in the region did the rest.

Looking back, an interesting picture emerges: the liberal arts in Chemnitz and the region received little new impetus in the 1960s. Occasionally, original minds shine out. Compared to the 1950s, there was a relative void of new forces, into which the Clara Mosch group of artists only successfully positioned itself in the mid-1970s with its enchanting lightness. Two outstanding young artists of those years, Carlfriedrich Claus and Gerhard Altenbourg, took their first steps to break away from regional references and seek international contacts and exchange despite all the difficulties. Claus in particular developed an experimental oeuvre that sought new paths of free expression on the basis of a clear philosophical position. He was also the only artist whose work reflected current developments in world affairs: the revolts of 1968 in the West, the Prague Spring, the colonial wars of liberation and, in art, the flourishing of Pop Art and Fluxus. However, he integrated these impulses into his broader historical-philosophical concept. The work of Claus and Altenbourg follows a course that does not coincide with that of the regionally oriented artists of the 1920s, who mostly adhered to the expressive-realist pictorial tradition. Here we find individual highly sensitive talents such as Karl Heinz Jakob and Carl-Heinz Westenburger.

In those years, women played almost no role in the artistic process in the region. It was only in the 1970s that they began to make inroads into the art academies of the East and from there to southwest Saxony. Only the photographer Christine Stephan-Brosch was able to gain recognition with portrait photographs of the artists. The painter Irene Bösch took her first steps at the end of the 1960s and was quickly recognized nationwide.

On the other hand, the economic upturn in the region brought considerable momentum to two artistic fields that had previously received little attention: industrial design and applied art. Clauss Dietel was successful in vehicle design and radio development. Hans Brockhage successfully developed toys and everyday appliances alongside his art in construction work.
The Gottschall Detlefsen Rieß (GDR) work collective and Harry Scheuner, who worked alone, became extremely successful stamp designers in the GDR and were later able to assert themselves under the new conditions of the post-reunification period in the Federal Republic.
The typographer and calligrapher Heinz Schumann was already making an international impact on type design issues in the 1960s due to his proximity to Albert Kapr and the Leipzig School. He designed several print types and quickly became the most important calligrapher in the country.

In the field of art in architecture, the few outstanding sculptors of the time, Johannes Belz and Harald Stephan, worked on numerous commissions. Belz's Klapperbrunnen fountain is still regarded today as an unbroken symbol of identification for the people of Chemnitz.