Developments since 1945 : Germany

After this period of forced isolation, German artists swiftly ventured into uncharted territory. The young generation of painters and sculptors, some of whom had been soldiers on the front lines, eagerly absorbed what they had been denied by Hitler’s dictatorship and the war. Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde as well as the Expressionists Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Pechstein were the outstanding models of the newly evolving art scene. For most of the young artists, Pablo Picasso with his exceedingly complex oeuvre represented the ultimate challenge. Of great import was the confrontation with Surrealism (Max Ernst, Salvador Dalf) and American Abstract Expressionism. But artists such as Roberto Sebastian Matta, Jean Dubuffet, Georges Mathieu, Jean Fautrier and Wols (real name Wolfgang Schulze) likewise furnished important impulses for the art scene in the early years of the Federal Republic.

A number of different groups played a crucial role in the evolution of this art scene. Among them were the “Ecole de Paris”, founded in 1940, whose members included Jean Bazaine, Roger Bissiere, Maurice Esteve, Charles Lapicque, Alfred Manessier, Gustave Singier, Pierre Soulages, Maria Elena Vieira da Silva, Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Stael and Hans Hartung; “Cobra” (Copenhagen, BRussels, Amsterdam), founded in 1948, with the Dane Asger Jorn, the Belgians Christian Dotremond and Joseph Noiret, and the Netherlanders Karel Appel, Constant (real name Anton Nieuvenhuys) and Corneille (originally Cornelis Guillaume van Beverloo); “junger westen”, founded in Reckling-hausen in 1948, with Gustav Deppe, Thomas Gro-chowiak, Ernst Hermanns, Emil Schumacher, Heinrich Siepmann and Hans Werdehausen; “Zen 49″, founded in Munich in 1949, whose members included Willi Baumeister, Fritz Winter, Ruprecht Geiger, Gerhard Fietz, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff, Rolf Cavael and, somewhat later, the Rhinelanders Joseph Fassbender, Hann Trier and Hubert Berke as well as Theodor and Woty Werner and the Berlin sculptors Karl Hartung and Hans Uhlmann; and, finally, “Quadriga”, founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1953, with K.O. Gotz, Otto Greis, Heinz Kreutz and Bernard Schultze.