German Artists Navigate American Influence as Berlin Rises as Art Hub

Key facts

• Berlin has become a significant international art center over the past decade, rivaling New York and London.
• German artists have a long history of both assimilating and critically resisting American art influences.
• Marcel Duchamp moved to the US in 1942 and influenced the first generation of Abstract Expressionists.
• Franz Erhard Walther created wearable sculptural works from 1963 to 1976, photographed in the Hochrhön region near Fulda.
• Gerhard Richter's 1965 painting depicts his Uncle Rudi in Nazi regalia, combining US-derived techniques with German history.
• Günther Förg photographed fascist-era architecture like the IG Farben building in Frankfurt.
• Martin Kippenberger used his Germanness as a form of political negation in his art.
• A generation of artists including André Butzer, Andy Hope 1930, and Kitty Kraus emerged from Berlin in the early 2000s.
• Group exhibitions like Made in Germany (2007, 2012) and Based in Berlin (2011) surveyed contemporary art in Germany.
• Sergej Jensen and Kai Althoff have relocated to New York, adapting their work to the new context.
• André Butzer exhibited his 'N-paintings' at Max Hetzler in autumn 2013.
• Andy Hope 1930 collaborated with American artist Paul McCarthy in Hamburg at the end of 2013.
• Kitty Kraus creates light installations using plywood plinths that leak light through a gap under black glass.
• Berlin's key commercial galleries include Buchholz, Neu, Barbara Weiss, and Esther Schipper.
• The article was first published in April 2014.