Picturing Socialism

Abstract

This vibrant history of the former German Democratic Republic’s public murals reveals a barely known but visually and theoretically rich cultural legacy. In the early 1990s, many artworks were dismantled or concealed in a direct political rejection of their socialist signification. Many others, falling into the categories of applied arts, were simply torn out because they were not comprehended to be art. Picturing Socialism traces the formal, functional and theoretical changes of the visual arts in urban space throughout this time, and shows how art, craft, design and architecture made up the terrain of a sustained struggle between practitioners and political leaders. This struggle was not the oft-assumed conflict between artistic freedom and political dogma. At stake was the self-identity of the socialist republic, and striking public murals functioned as the testing ground for East Germany’s ideological formation and development. The visual arts in architectural spaces were not simply viewed as pedagogical tools, but were charged with defining fundamental differences between the East German state and its affluent capitalist neighbour, the Federal Republic. Picturing Socialism provides an original, richly illustrated exploration into the function of socialist art, architecture and the impressive murals in East Germany’s public spaces.