German Art Now

German Art Now

German Art Now focuses on the extraordinary group of artists and photographers that emerged in Germany in the decades following the end of World War II, and whose wide-ranging themes and powerful aesthetic have established them as major figures on the world art stage. Featuring Joseph Beuys, Georg Baselitz, Jorg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Markus Lupertz, A. R. Penck, Sigmar Polke, and Gerhard Richter, this survey examines the way in which, through their sculptures, paintings, and drawings, these artists have confronted issues of national identity, defeat and recovery, mythology and the burdens of history, and the responsibilities of art in society. They have developed new forms of expression in which to address these themes, and their impact on the fields of abstract and figurative art, Pop Art, photo-realism, and performance art has been significant. Similarities of background and generation bind them into a recognizable group, yet, as the authors show, their resistance to any similarities of subject matter, medium, style, or artistic persona continues to ensure their individuality.

Give Me the Now

Rudolf Zwirner, “the man who invented the art market,” as coined in Der Spiegel, reflects on more than sixty years in the art business in his authoritative autobiography. “Americans now see Germany as a natural breeding ground for mighty gallerists and collectors, but Rudolf Zwirner’s fascinating new memoir walks us through the decades it took to rebuild an art world shattered by World War II. In this dealer’s charming telling, however, the work involved sounds more like play than labor.” —Blake Gopnik, author of Warhol An art dealer of the ages, Rudolf Zwirner, father of the esteemed gallerist David Zwirner, reached many milestones in his career. From cofounding Art Cologne, the first fair for contemporary art, in 1967, to showing works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, and Andy Warhol, Zwirner transformed the contemporary art scene in Cologne. Born in 1933, he presented more than three hundred exhibitions from the early 1960s to 1992. In his autobiography, Zwirner reveals stories of artists, his gallery, and his most important collector, Peter Ludwig, whose collection forms the cornerstone of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. First published in 2019 in German, and translated and adapted here for the first time in English, the book explores the most significant moments of Zwirner’s career and the fast-changing postwar art world. Also included in this edition is a new foreword by Lucas Zwirner, Rudolf’s grandson, who reflects on his grandfather’s role in bringing us to the global art landscape we find ourselves in now.

German Art Now