Deutsch-deutsche Kunstgeschichte am Beispiel von Hanne Darboven und Werner Tübke

Abstract Deutsch-deutsche Kunstgeschichte am Beispiel von Hanne Darboven und Werner Tübke The histories of art in former East and West Germany have been described as evolving synchronously. This article, arguing from another point of view, analyzes two works from the 1980s, both of them outstanding in purpose and size: Werner Tübke’s monumental painting Frühbürgerliche Revolution in Deutschland in the Museum Bad Frankenhausen (formerly GDR) and Hanne Darboven’s Bismarckzeit in the Kunstmuseum Bonn (FRG). The investigation into their subjects, forms, and contents within their historical contexts – the period of Erich Honecker’s claim for a socialist tradition and Helmut Schmidt’s Realpolitik, respectively – reveals a greater distinctness grounded on different concepts of art, i.e., anti-modern (Tübke) versus modernist (Darboven). Nevertheless, in their view of German history a common kind of scepticism about teleology may be discerned, which is based on the artists’ shared experiences of Germany’s disastrous contribution to the twentieth century.