Alice Lex-Nerlinger/Oskar Nerlinger
(catalogue)

In 1975, the Akademie der Künste of the German Democratic Republic hosted a major retrospective of the work of this artist couple. The exhibition featured early works from the revolutionary phase of the 1920s and ‘30s, works made after the Nazis came to power, and works influenced by Socialist Realism. The exhibition later travelled to West Berlin, where it was shown in reduced form at the nGbK. In 1974, Alice Lex-Nerlinger had donated her husband’s estate along with most of her own works to the Akademie to be studied and used for political purposes. Based on a selection from this body of around 4500 paintings, drawings, prints, and photographic works, the exhibition aimed to highlight the role of these two artists in the development of art in the GDR. The black-and-white catalogue of the Akademie gives an overview of the technical diversity of the works on show and contains short texts written by the artists themselves on themes including murals, photomontage, and the relationship between art and politics.