What impression do you have of this young man? Elegant and nonchalant - or arrogant and decadent? For people in the GDR, this depiction of a large Sicilian landowner must have been puzzling.
The painting dates from 1972. When artist Werner Tübke produced this work, he had realised his dream of a trip to Italy for a second time – now travelling from Milan to Sicily. In the GDR, such a trip was almost inconceivable not just for those living there, but also for most of Tübke’s fellow artists. In allowing Tübke to travel, the GDR regime hoped to enhance its prestige abroad and acquire foreign currency – since the artist was also permitted to exhibit, though only receiving 15% of the sale price. The Gemäldegalerie in Dresden acquired this painting in 1972 directly from the Seventh Art Exhibition of the GDR. The work cost 20,000 East German marks, a vast sum in those days.
The background landscape is inspired by the Gulf of Palermo, while the striking red tone of the walls most likely derives from murals in Pompeii. The near life-size marionettes are elements of Sicilian folk theatre recalling the chequered history of an island first held by the Greeks and then the Romans, the Norman kings and Arab rulers. Werner Tübke’s main protagonist on this stage may well embody the artist’s reaction to, as he said:
“The contrasts between the shocking poverty and the hypocritical and provocative peculiarities of the ruling classes with their, at times, fatal imperturbability.”
Tübke drew on Italy’s history as well as his experiences there and what he saw. His composition and painting technique clearly echoes Old Masters’ traditions, especially of the Renaissance. Tübke was convinced these visual possibilities were extremely well suited to expressing today’s feeling for life. As he said:
“I do not know art from the past, I only know art.”
Further Media
Art Exhibitions of the GDR
In 1972, the Seventh Art Exhibition of the GDR showed around 2000 works by nearly 1000 ‘cultural practitioners’. The pieces on show included paintings by Werner Tübke, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Willi Sitte and Bernhard Heisig.
“The Art Exhibitions of the GDR were prestigious events to showcase the state of East German art. Naturally, the GDR did not have a comparable art market to West Germany, but these exhibitions were held every three to five years, a total of ten times over the years of the GDR. They were huge exhibitions where juries decided in the run-up to the event which artists would be represented.”
From 1953, the Art Exhibitions of the GDR were always held here in the Albertinum in Dresden. The exhibitions proved enormously popular. For instance, the Eighth Art Exhibition of the GDR in 1977 broke all previous records for the show, as Astrid Nielsen explains:
“In the 1970s, at the zenith of this major art exhibition’s success, the 1977 show attracted 1.1 million visitors – while only around 335,000 people went to the West German documenta held in Kassel that same year.”
Of course, in the exhibition’s early years, the official state policy was to ensure plenty of visitors were taken to the show – since, as set out in the GDR’s “Bitterfeld Path” initiative on cultural policy, art and culture should be open to as many working people as possible. So, for example, factories often organised trips to the exhibitions for their workers. For their part, the artists selected by the jury could hope to sell their works afterwards to East German museums.
“In the GDR, to sell their works officially artists had to be members of East Germany’s Association of Visual Artists. In other words, in some way their works had to conform with the precepts of art approved in the GDR – and if they didn’t, those artists had very little chance of taking part in the Art Exhibitions of the GDR.”
- Material & Technique
- Oil on wood
- Museum
- Galerie Neue Meister
- Dating
- 1972
- Inventory number
- Gal.-Nr. 3905