East German art expo launched 30 years after fall of Berlin Wall

On display are more than 130 pictures and several sculptures by 13 artists from the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Among them are Bernhard Heisig, who was known outside the country even during the time of East Germany, and AR Penck, who was stripped of his citizenship and expelled in 1980 only to succeed in the West. Others were familiar only to insiders on both sides of the former internal German border.
The exhibition entitled "Utopia and Fall. Art in the GDR" runs from September 5 to January 5.
The museum wants to use the show to expand the collective German memory from the time of partition, it said.
It is also about "viewing critically and self-critically how this art has been viewed and received in the Federal Republic [West Germany]," German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a foreword to the exhibition catalogue.
Germany was divided after World War II until 1990 into an eastern communist part, known officially as the German Democratic Republic, and a western capitalist part, known as the Federal Republic of Germany.
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