Die gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeit der Kinder in der bildenden Kunst

Year: 1979 Type: Print publication Languages: German Scope: 400 p., numerous images, color and b/w Cooperation: Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin

The social reality of children in fine art

The UN resolution concerning the International Year of the Child in 1976 appealed for measures to alleviate the misery and suffering of millions of children, recalling that each society is responsible for raising and educating its young people. An nGbK working group picked up this issue and initiated an exhibition at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin: more than 45 museums in Germany and abroad, as well as many private collections, loaned a total of 500 works from five centuries—by artists including William Hogarth, Johann Valentin Tischbein, Wilhelm Busch, Käthe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Christian Schad. The organizers were looking for pictures “in which children are shown not isolated but in life contexts, in families and schools, at play, in class, and at work, suffering, abandoned, and in situations of social conflict.” The catalogue with 60 color and black-and-white illustrations contains historical information and studies on individual artists, as well as texts on the situation of children in the 1970s.

An abridged reprint of the exhibition catalogue from 1979 was published by Elefanten Press in 1986.

Ed.: nGbK

Work group: Jula Dech, Brundhild Enkemann, Kristina Eriksson, Liselotte Ernst, Michel Gaißmayer, Antje Gerlach, Jürgen Hoffmann, Katharina (Katja) Jedermann, Wolfgang Jörg, Jutta Kunde, Sybille Patzig, Dieter Ruckhaberle, Gabi Sanft, Karl-Robert Schütze, Christiane Zieseke

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