Contrasts: Recent German and Italian Prints

A return to figurative art marks the work of a new wave of avant-garde artists from Germany and Italy who swept to international prominence at the Venice Biennale in 1980. Dubbed 'Neo-expressionists' by critics anxious to classify them, these German and Italian artists are uninhibited in their expression of highly-charged emotions, apocalyptic visions and poetic fantasies. In some respects this intense subjectivity represents a reaction to the depersonalized abstraction which dominated the art world from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s. Although the new figurative art emerged in Germany and Italy at almost the same time, sharp contrasts in style and content are revealed in the art from the two countries. In Germany an aggressive, often politically directed, art is evident, while in Italy a gentler, more lyrical style expresses the timeless themes of mystery and myth.

The deep tensions of a divided Germany are articulated by Jörg Immendorff in his Café Deutschland gut (Café Germany good) series. German motifs and emblems are used expressively to reinforce his political concerns: the Berlin Wall is constructed from blocks of blue ice, horses tumble from the Brandenburg Gate (a monument from Germany's imperial past, located at the Wall and now a symbol of the division between East and West Germany), and the national eagle is depicted either half-broken or strangled with the artist's paint-brush. As Immendorff explains: 'Ideological and political determination run like a red thread through my art and my life'. Immendorff's close friend A.R. Penck crossed from East to West Germany in 1980. Stick figures, inspired by prehistoric cave drawings, and signals developed from twentieth-century communication theory are used by Penck as a language of signs.

Georg Baselitz, who has made prints consistently since the early 1960s, is more interested in exploring formal problems in art than in making art political. Since 1969 he has depicted his subject matter upside-down because he does not want his images read as either wholly representational or wholly abstract. In his woodcut Adler (Eagle), the proud, imperial eagle is inverted and becomes a falling, lifeless form; its off-centre positioning renders the image even more disquieting.

The Swiss German artist Martin Disler expresses aggression and chaos in the very title of his etching portfolio, Endless modern licking of crashing globe by black doggie time-bomb.

A gentler style runs through the works of the Italian artists Enzo Cucchi, Mimmo Paladino, Francesco Clemente and Sandro Chia. Their elusive imagery is suggestive of myths, religion, memory and poetry. As Cucchi has stated, 'The world is confused today. People want to have images . . . a Madonna. They are looking for an image, an icon. They want this at all costs. What can give this possibility if not figurative art?' Cucchi depicts a surreal landscape, animated by the magical apparitions and presences found in the folklore and popular beliefs of his native Marches, a remote region north-east of Rome. For Paladino, the archaeological richness of his birthplace outside Naples has inspired reflections on the mysteries of the past. Ancient spirits guard Paladino's caverns and tombs, whose buried layers of skeletons, skulls and shards evoke past civilizations. Self-portraits feature prominently in the work of the Neapolitan Clemente, whose annual periods of residence in India, New York and Italy have resulted in a poetic fusion of Eastern and Western motifs in his art. For Chia, art is a means of presenting, as he puts it, 'riddles for me and whoever else wants to try and understand'.

The renewal of figuration in Germany and Italy represents an important current direction in art. Prints are an important aspect of this new direction. A return to the tradition of figurative art may be underway; if this development is sustained, abstraction may come to be viewed as a critical breakthrough, but not a permanent condition, in the evolution of art.

Stephen Coppel
Department of International Prints and Illustrated Books

Contrasts: Recent German and Italian Prints was exhibited at the Australian National University's Drill Hall Gallery.