Verschwiegene Kunst

In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the art of the ruling party was seen as a weapon in the class struggle. The program of "socialist realism" was institutionally anchored and adherence to it monitored. But the art was older than the state, and there were artists who insisted on the independence of their work. Some of them had been trained prior to 1933, and others in Berlin (West) in the 1950s. Some were recognized internationally, and many emigrated. In the ongoing debates surrounding art in the GDR, what is also reflected is the shifting relationship between the state party and the international West. It ranged from a demonizing of modernity to a socialist interpretation and reluctant broadening of the canon to the task of party doctrine shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.