How do artists confront major political shifts? The end of the 1980s witnessed a series of civic uprisings worldwide. Central and Eastern Europe experienced revolutionary changes—from the dismantling of the Berlin Wall to the breakup of Yugoslavia. The political transformations following the end of the Cold War and its imposed East-West dichotomies incited many artists to publicly reassess their countries’ entangled histories in relation to new democracies, transnational networks, and personal identity—sometimes with a sense of new possibility and sometimes with retrospective insight. They experimented with performance, montage, and fragmented narratives, underscoring art’s potential to imagine histories alternate to official interpretations. “Everything we do has a political charge and the division between politics and aesthetics is entirely erroneous,” the artist Sanja Iveković once pointedly noted.
Collection 1970s–Present
208
After the Wall
208
After the Wall
- MoMA, Floor 2, 208 The David Geffen Wing
- This collection gallery is a part of New art from wall to wall.
-
Pawel Althamer Skin 1997 -
Sibylle Bergemann Gummlin, Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Spring 1976 -
Sibylle Bergemann Gummlin, Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany July 1977 -
Sibylle Bergemann Gummlin, Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany December 1980 -
Sibylle Bergemann Gummlin, Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany May 1984 -
Sibylle Bergemann The Lustgarten, Berlin Cathedral, Berlin, Germany February 1986 -
Sibylle Bergemann Berlin, Germany February 1986 -
Günther Förg Untitled 1987 -
Isa Genzken Painting 1989 -
Sanja Iveković Personal Cuts 1982 -
Martin Kippenberger Martin, Into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself 1992 -
Boris Mikhailov Untitled, from the series Case History 1997-98 -
Sigmar Polke Watchtower 1984 -
Rosemarie Trockel Untitled 1987
Artists
-
Pawel Althamer
Polish, born 19672 exhibitions, 3 works online -
Miroslaw Balka
Polish, born 19584 exhibitions, 18 works online -
Sibylle Bergemann
German, 1941–20102 exhibitions, 12 works online -
Geta Brătescu
Romanian, 1926–20185 exhibitions, 10 works online -
Guillermo Deisler
Chilean, 1940–19951 exhibition - There are 28 artists in this collection gallery online.
Installation images
In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.
If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
All requests to license audio or video footage produced by MoMA should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills or motion picture footage from films in MoMA’s Film Collection cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For licensing motion picture film footage it is advised to apply directly to the copyright holders. For access to motion picture film stills please contact the Film Study Center. More information is also available about the film collection and the Circulating Film and Video Library.
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication or moma.org, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].