post-title Jürgen Wittdorf | FAVOURITES | works from 1952-2003 | KVOST | 29.08.-14.11.2020

Jürgen Wittdorf | FAVOURITES | works from 1952-2003 | KVOST | 29.08.-14.11.2020

Jürgen Wittdorf | FAVOURITES | works from 1952-2003 | KVOST | 29.08.-14.11.2020

Jürgen Wittdorf | FAVOURITES | works from 1952-2003 | KVOST | 29.08.-14.11.2020

until 14.11. | #2827ARTatBerlin | KVOST presents since August 29, 2020, the exhibition “FAVOURITES Works from 1952 – 2003” by the artist Jürgen Wittdorf.

Starting August 28, 2020, the Kunstverein Ost – KVOST will for the first time show more than 100 works from the estate of the painter and graphic artist Jürgen Wittdorf (1932-2018). Wittdorf left numerous works of art in his Berlin apartment – his personal “favourites”.

Among them are woodcuts and linocuts as well as drawings with red chalk, charcoal and ink and ceramics. The exhibition at KVOST is supplemented by pictures of his probably most famous series: woodcuts from the “Cycle for the Youth”.

Wittdorf’s pictures show diverse everyday scenes, still lifes, landscapes and animals. His breakthrough as an artist in the GDR, however, came with the depiction of young people, who were not idealized as workers and farmers, but were portrayed as seekers with their desires and longings. What Wittdorf was accused of “westernization” by the authorities was enthusiastically celebrated by the youth.

For Wittdorf, art was also a means of coming to terms with his own homosexuality, which was a punishable offence in the GDR until 1968. Over the decades, this led to a number of pictures of half-clothed or naked male bodies. Seen from today’s perspective, numerous references are made to the iconic works of artists such as David Hockney or Tom of Finland.

Wittdorf did not leave behind any instructions which would have regulated the whereabouts of his legacy. After his death, an auction in an auction house for estates took place, in which the collector Jan Linkersdorff was able to save a large part of the collection, thus enabling its coherent preservation.

ArtATBerlin-Courtesy-of-KVOST-and-Sammlung-Linkersdorff-Berlin-Motive-von-Juergen-Wittdorf-Foto-Attila-HartwigMotifs from Jürgen Wittdorf / Photo: Attila Hartwig
courtesy: KVOST and collection Linkersdorff, Berlin

KVOST shows the works of Jürgen Wittdorf in a Petersburg hanging, mostly in the original frames – just as they were presented in Wittdorf’s apartment. The exhibition is made possible by loans from the Linkersdorff Collection and the collection of the Gay Museum Berlin.

Jürgen Wittdorf, born in Karlsruhe, with school education in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig from 1952 to 1957. After several years as a freelance artist in Leipzig, Wittdorf moved to East Berlin in 1970 and became a master student at the Academy of Arts with Lea Grundig. Besides his freelance work as a graphic artist and painter, Wittdorf was a lecturer and drawing teacher for many years. His works are represented in several collections of East German museums and in the Berlin Gay Museum. The graphic portfolio “Zyklus für die Jugend” is also part of the collection of the German Historical Museum.

Exhibition dates: Saturday, August 29 – Saturday, November 14, 2020

To the Gallery

 

 

Exhibition Jürgen Wittdorf – Galerie KVOST | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin

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