True Stories - A Show Related to an Era - The Eighties

Amongst the younger painters to attract attention in Germany in the late seventies and early eighties, a group that exhibited primarily in the gallery of Max Hetzler took a special place: Werner Buttner, Martin Kippenberger, Albert and Markus Oehlen, and later Georg Herold. Their painting became a broad field of very different activities: linguistic interventions and publications played a role as well as performances and stagings. The provocative character of the painting served to distinguish it from previous generations of artists, while the general air of provocation ensured any premature endorsement was subverted. For some of these artists, this also meant that they were long shunned by the institutional scene and only later accorded entry into the museums. The motto was Bevor ihr malt, mach ich das lieber (Before you start painting, I'd rather do it). Exhibitions were subordinated to topics whose relation to artistic issues appeared less than plausible, which foregrounded certain neo-dadaistic aspects.