To Each Their Own Reality: The Art of the FRG and the GDR at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1981

In 1981, two exhibitions of contemporary German art take place in succession at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The first, entitled Art Allemagne Aujourd’ hui (Art Germany today), is organized by Suzanne Pagé and René Block at L’Arc and at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and it embodies the recognition of German art of the second half of the twentieth century by French museums. ¹ Alongside the works of Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Hanne Darboven, Palermo and Klaus Rinke, the exhibition presents paintings by Georg Baselitz, A. R. Penck, Markus Lüpertz, and Jörg Immendorff; this is one of the first events outside Germany to showcase these artists. ² A few months later, an exhibition opens which has now almost faded into oblivion. Only a few specialist publications on the issue of the cultural relations of the GDR, such as Kunst als Botschafter einer künstlichen Nation by Christian Saehrendt, still refer to it. This exhibition, organized by Bernadette Contensou, is entitled Peinture et gravure en République démocratique allemande. It presents works by Bernhard Heisig, Werner Tübke, Volker Stelzmann, Hartwig Ebersbach, Arno Rink, and others, who are now considered to have been the most important representatives of GDR art. ³