Only a wave
In 1977, a student working group led by art historian Klaus Herding engaged with Gustave Courbet’s painting The Wave (1870) that hung at the time in the Neue Nationalgalerie in West Berlin. As well as discussing Courbet’s central role in the realism debate, the aim was to address the growing interest in nature as a consequence of environmental pollution. The working group describes its project as follows: “Using the example of a landscape painting, seemingly unpolitical in thematic terms, the film addresses the historical conditions under which the picture was painted and exhibited, thus removing it from its isolation in the museum today and giving viewers renewed access to its social context and critical content.” To realize this plan, they made the film Nur eine Woge (Only a wave) and the accompanying booklet with a treatment and the script, containing, as an insert, a black-and-white poster featuring a compilation of ocean waves in art, media, and advertising.

Ed.: nGbK

Work group: Jula Dech, Gundula Fink, Klaus Herding, Brigitte Schütz, Roswitha Siewert