If Not In This Period Of Time: Contemporary German Painting 1989-2010
Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil, Sept 19, 2010 – Jan 9, 2011

   installation shots

German painting holds again an outstanding place in the world art scene. Designed especially for MAsP, this exhibition displays works made between 1989, when the Berlin Wall falls, and 2010 – but this does not hinder the inclusion of works done before that date whose presence can enhance the overall understanding of this history.

Germany is one single country again but traces of the former division, which took place both in geography and culture, are still visible in art. it was a deep division. According to Arno Rink, former director of the leipzig Academy, the reality of the Wall allowed the artists from the East "to keep following Cranach's and (Max) Beckmann's tradition", safeguarding the art they did from "Joseph Beuys' influence"... This idea might seem unfair as to Beuys and lead to ill-timed conclusions; but it allows to understand a
good part of whatever is done today in painting in Germany.

The panorama displayed is a wide one, unyelding to rigid categories. Alongside the figurative comes the abstract, and next to the playfull there is the metaphysical, just as the socialist realism appears next to the most capitalistic pop culture, in different keys of representation.

Thus varied and as spiritual and immaterial as every painting is (more so than any other art form, according to Hegel), the contemporary German painting oversteps the limits and traits of any particular time in order to include itself in a vaster world effect – a world at once realistic, opaque and fantastic.

Curated by Teixeira Coelho and Tereza de Arruda

participating artists
Franz Ackermann, Werner Büttner, André Butzer, Tatjana Doll, Tim Eitel, Katharina Grosse, Eberhard Havekost, Bernhard Heisig, Anton Henning, Andreas Hofer, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Markus Lüpertz, Michel Majerus, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, A.R. Penck, Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Scheibitz, David Schnell, Werner Tübke, Corinne Wasmuht, Thomas Zipp

Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz and supported by the Goethe Institute, the Brazilian incentive laws and DHL.


MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand [visit website]
Av. Paulista, 1.578 - Cerqueira César, São Paulo, Brazil
Exhibition Period: September 19, 2010 – January 9, 2011