Pop Art in the GDR: Willy Wolff's Dialogue with the West

Willy Wolff, a student of Dix, member of the ASSO, former anarchist ¹ and early communist (he joined the KPD/Communist Party of Germany in 1929 ² ) was firm in his belief that there was no alternative to a socialist society. Although he did not question the political goal, he did take a critical stance on the party and its directives, particularly in regard to the visual arts. He found it impossible to acknowledge aesthetic judgments made by an office; he did not allow himself to be used for politico-cultural purposes; he refused public commissions such as the opportunity in the second half of the 1960s to paint the foyer of the television tower at Alexanderplatz with popular motifs. ³ He followed his own artistic ideas without compromising. As happened with many of his colleagues, this gave rise to a prohibition against exhibiting; in 1968, for example, an exhibition in the Galerie Kunst unserer Zeit (Gallery for Contemporary Art) in Dresden had to be cancelled shortly before the opening on order of the authorities. ⁴