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Lang (Lothar) Collection
920100
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Title: Lothar Lang collection of East German art ephemera
Date (inclusive): 1930, 1953-1992
Number: 920100
Creator/Collector:
Lang,
Lothar
Physical Description:
13 Linear Feet
(29 boxes, 1 flatfile folder)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Compiled by German art historian Lothar
Lang, the collection represents the work and activity of over 700 artists and institutions
in East Germany in the latter half of the 20th century. The bulk of the collection is
composed of artists' and institutions' files containing exhibition announcements, leaflets,
photographs, offprints, negatives, press and book clippings, and correspondence. The
artists' and institutions' files also include six posters for the political cabaret Distel
in East Berlin, eleven oversize color reproductions of paintings, one oversize black-and
white reproduction of a woodcut, and one oversize black-and-white reproduction of an
illustration. The collection also contains eight LP records and a clay plaque commemorating
the 75th anniversary of the Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle.
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Language: Collection material is in
German.
Lothar Lang (1928 March 20 - 2013 July 20) was a prominent East German art historian, art
critic, and writer who specialized in East German art and in book arts. Born in Saxony, Lang
grew up in Thuringia. In the fall of 1944, he was conscripted into the Hitler Youth and from
there into military service, but deserted in May 1945, an action that he describes in his
autobiography
Ein Leben für die Kunst (2009) as stemming from
"youthful foolishness" rather than from courage. After World War II, Lang joined the
Communist Party and studied art history, philosophy, sociology, and history under the
auspices of the Landesamt für Volksbildung in a coordinated program at the Brandenburg
Landeshochschule in Potsdam and the Pädagogisches Zentralinstitut in Berlin. In 1955, he
became the Senior Assistant at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Potsdam, and began teaching
Aesthetics at the Institut für Lehrerweiterbildung/Musikerziehung in Berlin-Weißensee, a
division of the Pädagogische Hochschule, in 1957. There, he founded an art gallery, the
Kunstkabinett, in 1962, in order to provide a forum for students and young artists. This
gallery, one of the few new venues for art in the young German Democratic Republic, went on
to host over 300 exhibitions, readings, and performances before the Ministerium für
Volksbildung ordered it closed and Lang fired in 1968. In 1957, Lang also began his career
as an art critic with the journal
Die Weltbühne, a post he
held until 1991; from 1964 to 1998, he edited the periodical
Marginalien, published by the Pirckheimer Society for Bibliophilia and Book Arts.
In 1965, Lang founded the Kabinettpresse Berlin, which printed twenty graphics collections
from the date of its founding through 1974, and from 1980 to 1989, he served as museum
director at the Staatliches Museum Schloß Burgk (Thuringia). From 1975 to 1991, together
with Hans Marquardt, Lang edited thirty-three editions of original graphic works for the
Reclam Publishing Company. Lang compiled this collection while undertaking these activities.
In addition to his autobiography, Lang published several titles on art of the German
Democratic Republic, as well as works on book arts such as
Expressionistische Buchkunst in Deutschland (1975) and
Konstruktivismus and Buchkunst (1990).
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Lothar Lang collection of East German artist ephemera, 1930-1992, The Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 920100.
http:hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa920100
Acquired in 1992.
The collection was arranged and described by Julia Kim in 2015 under the supervision of Sue
Tyson, who edited the finding aid and added some information to the Biographical/Historical
Note. Prior to processing, printed materials were found pre-sorted by file level; the
Registrar's Office provided initial rehousing of materials into plastic sleeves, which were
replaced by archival folders.
Related archival materials include the German Democratic Republic collections, 1928-1993
(bulk 1950-1993), which include the Lothar Lang papers; and the CM collection (1980-2982),
comprising a set of prints by the Clara Mosch artists' group and containing work by several
artists represented in the Lothar Lang collection including Thomas Ranft, Dagmar
Ranft-Schinke, Michael Morgner, Gregor-Torsten Kozik, and Ralf-Rainer Wasse, Special
Collections call number NE654.6 .C5 1980.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection represents the work and activity of over 700 artists and institutions in
East Germany from approximately 1953 to 1992; it also includes one item from 1930. Files
contain an assortment of exhibition announcements, leaflets, photographs, offprints,
negatives, press and book clippings, correspondence, other miscellaneous ephemera, posters,
phonograph records, and a commemorative plaque. The materials were collected by Lothar Lang
while running a gallery, the Kunstkabinett, in East Berlin from 1962 to 1968; while heading
the Kabinett-Presse; and later during his tenure as museum director in Burgk, Thuringia in
the 1980s. The collection represents approximately 725 East German artists, covering
well-known individuals as well as lesser-known artists. Artists who are strongly featured in
the collection include Willi Sitte (who served as president of the Association of Visual
Artists of the German Democratic Republic), Fritz Cremer, John Heartfield, Werner Klemke,
and Hans Grundig.
The Artists series comprises the bulk of the collection and consists of records and
ephemera related to individual artists dating from 1930 to 1992. The series also includes a
few files related to artist couples, filed under their shared last name; eleven oversize
color reproductions of paintings; one oversize black-and white reproduction of a woodcut;
and one oversize black-and-white reproduction of an illustration.
The Galleries and institutions series consists of records and ephemera dating from 1953 to
1991. Files are arranged alphabetically by name of city. The series also includes six
posters from between 1965 and 1974 that advertise programs of the East Berlin-based
political cabaret Distel. This still-extant satirical troupe of the German Democratic
Republic began running performances with its own house ensemble beginning in 1953.
The Phonograph records and realia series contains eight longplay phonograph records and one
earthenware plaque commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Burg Giebichenstein
Kunsthochschule Halle.
The collection is arranged in three series:
Series I. Artists, 1930-1992,
undated;
Series II. Galleries and institutions,
1953-1991, undated;
Series III. Phonograph records and
realia, 1966-1990
Materials pertaining to individual artists and artist couples comprise the bulk of the
collection, and form the first series. The original alphabetical order was maintained for
the first series, and items or files that were found to be out of existing order were
correctly integrated. Additional materials related to group shows and other art-related
events were also sleeved separately, but found dispersed throughout the collection; these
materials were consolidated to form the second series, and are arranged alphabetically by
name of city. Oversize printed reproductions and posters have been listed with the above two
series.The third series comprises eight LP records arranged in alphabetical order by cover
title or, in the case of the recordings,
by number in series; and one earthenware plaque, which is housed in its own box.
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Collectors and collecting -- Germany
(East)
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Exhibitions
Art -- Exhibitions -- Germany (East)
Art historians -- Germany (East)
Art historians as collectors -- Germany (East)
Art galleries, Commercial -- Germany (East)
Artists -- Germany (East) -- Exhibitions
Art publishing -- Germany (East)
Ephemera -- 20th century
Clippings -- 20th century
Printed ephemera -- Germany (East) -- 20th century
Announcements -- 20th century
Posters -- Germany (East) -- 20th century
Lang,
Lothar