Podcast — Episode 16
Contemporary art in Germany: A Conversation with Gregory H. Williams
Our guest on this episode is Gregory H. Williams, the author of Permission to Laugh: Humor and Politics in Contemporary German Art.
Part One:
How did the political and economic changes in 1970s-1980s West Germany (the waning of the economic miracle, the Tendenzwende, the rise to power of conservative Helmut Kohl) affect the art of that period? (1:15) — Three generations of postwar German art (3:15) — The role of humor: Sigmar Polke vs. Martin Kippenberger (7:00) — Kippenberger’s interdisciplinary theatricality (14:00) — Problematic masculinity: bad boys undermining the cult of the heroic genius (17:15) — Translating German art for an American audience: Kippenberger vs. Anselm Kiefer (20:30) — Rosemarie Trockel, Monika Sprueth, Max Hetzler and the 1980s Cologne scene (25:30) — Humans and animals in Trockel’s work (29:00)
Part Two:
Varieties of humor in West German art: defensive and apathetic, or generative and creative (1:15) — Dealing with a crisis in the modern project: progress stalled, needing an outlet (4:00) — Isa Genzken, modernism and architecture (6:56) — Changes in the biennial era after 1989 (13:15) — A new generation in Cologne: Cosima von Bonin, Christian Nagel, Andrea Fraser, Michael Krebber (18:15) — Günther Förg: modernism, formalism, architecture (22:30)
The Athenaeum Review podcast is produced by Creative Disturbance.