Can there be art after Auschwitz? German artists contended with this difficult question in various ways.
1945 - 1980
videos + essays
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Bernd and Hilla Becher, Water Towers, 1988
The Bechers captured industrial forms with stunning austerity and incredible consistency.
An interview with Anselm Kiefer
SFMOMA talks with German artist Anselm Kiefer about exploring the past and materials in his work
Gerhard Richter, September
Richter revives the genre of history painting in the 21st century in this work showing the events of 9/11.
Gerhard Richter, The Cage Paintings (1-6)
John Cage and Richter never met, but there was a kinship between these two artists with diverse practices.
Gerhard Richter, Betty
Hyperreal paintings like “Betty” are just one part of Richter’s practice, which resists stylistic classification.
Joseph Beuys, Table with Accumulator (Tisch mit Aggregat)
We’re sick with the illness of the 20th century, and only a clay-powered wooden battery thing can help.
Joseph Beuys, Fat Chair
Beuys understood his art as a way to heal post-WWII Germany, but that may not be readily apparent from this work.
Joseph Beuys, Celtic +∿∿∿∿ and Conceptual Performance
Beuys believed that every human being had the potential to be both creative and Christlike.
Anselm Kiefer, Shulamite
In this canvas, Kiefer transformed architecture meant to honor Nazi heros into a memorial for their victims.
Sigmar Polke, Watchtower series
Cheap fabric with a garish print becomes an eerie specter of surveillance thanks to some creative chemistry.
Sigmar Polke, Bunnies
Hugh Hefner turned women into objects, and Sigmar Polke turned those objects into dots.
Gerhard Richter, Uncle Rudi
Richter toys with both visual and ethical clarity in this evocative, ambiguous painting of an uncle lost to WWII.
