Art Archive Beeskow

The “Collection and Documentation Center for GDR Art” was founded in 1995 at Beeskow Castle to preserve artworks and objects that had lost their owners after 1990. In 2001, it was renamed to Art Archive Beeskow and today the collection belongs to the Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life.

2021
Following a multi-year reconceptualization process, the Art Archive and the Documentation Center of GDR Everyday Culture merged under the umbrella of “Museum of Utopia and Everyday Life. Everyday Culture and Art in the GDR.”

2020
In the Brandenburg State Parliament, the Art Archive and the Documentation Center of GDR Everyday Culture present their collections for one year under the title “Work, Work, Work. Series on Socialist Production.” With the participatory exhibition duo “Everyone into Art,” the Art Archive organizes its final presentation at Beeskow Castle, whose spaces will be used as a museum in the future.

2019
The 2001 administrative agreement between the states of Brandenburg, Berlin, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with the Oder-Spree district (LOS) is dissolved. In the future, each state will separately regulate the disposition of its partial collection with the LOS. The state of Brandenburg provides increased funding for the Art Archive Beeskow. The inventory of the art collection is completed. Thanks to the “Invest East” funding program, the Art Archive can move into new, well-equipped storage spaces behind Beeskow Castle. The Art Archive team now includes Birgit Karau (Library), Sabrina Kotzian (Organization), Rostyslav Voronko (Storage) and research associate Angelika Weißbach. During a collaboration with HU Berlin, students create the exhibition “about seeing” using sculptures from the Art Archive, which is displayed at multiple locations.

2017/2018
Florentine Nadolni becomes the new director of the Art Archive Beeskow and the Documentation Center of GDR Everyday Culture in Eisenhüttenstadt in 2017. Here, in Cottbus and Frankfurt (Oder), works from the Museum of Young Art, the Diesel Power Plant Art Museum, and the Art Archive are exhibited in parallel under the title “Spotlights.” At Beeskow Castle, two collection exhibitions of the Art Archive take place: “Women Sculptors” and “Negative Images. Graphics by Dieter Tucholke.” At Biesdorf Palace, individual graphic portfolios from the Art Archive collection are presented.

2014-2016
Hildtrud Ebert, Jutta Penndorf, and Matthias Flügge prepare an expert assessment of the Art Archive’s collection on behalf of the three states. Upon her recommendation, it was decided to conduct an inventory. This task was taken on by Angelika Weißbach in November 2015, with special attention to printed graphics. Monika Kunth, Head of the Office for Education, Culture and Sport in LOS, took over management of the Art Archive after Ilona Weser retired in April 2016. In September 2016, Schloss Biesdorf / ZKR opened with the exhibition “Mission Landscape,” a cooperation with the Art Archive.

2010-2013
The architectural firm Max Dudler presented designs for a new building for the Art Archive on the grounds of Beeskow Castle, but its realization failed due to lack of funding. Numerous cooperation projects took place: the exhibition “Krag Arsenalu 1955” with the Museum Lubuskie Gorzow, a summer school with the University of Lüneburg, the symposium “From Image Dispute to Image” with HU Berlin, the exhibition “RoleModels!” with the Poll Art Foundation, the summer school “Modernity, Socialism and Art” with the University of Utrecht. Herbert Schirmer returned to Beeskow as curator and organized the exhibitions “Shift Change” and “Side Change,” which were also shown in Krefeld and in Eupen, Belgium.

2008/2009
Ilona Weser, Head of the Department for Education, Health and Social Affairs in LOS, agreed to take over co-management of the Art Archive after de Bruyn’s move to the Kleist Museum Frankfurt (Oder). In 2009, the Art Archive became a partner in the joint project “BILDATLAS: Art in the GDR.” The partners are the Technical University of Dresden, the Center for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam, and the State Art Collections Dresden. In the Art Archive, the number of staff members increased: Claudia Jansen, Marlene Heidel, and Gabriele Möller joined Kristina Geisler, Sylvana Kaiser, and Petra Müller. Simone Tippach-Schneider developed a utilization concept for presenting the Beeskow collection in a “Gallery Image Dispute” at Schloss Biesdorf in Berlin.

2002-2007
Marina Aurich, Head of the LOS District Archive, was responsible for the Art Archive from 2002 to 2005 and supported the conversion of the existing database to a new system (AUGIAS). Starting in 2004, Simone Tippach-Schneider curated several traveling exhibitions with the Art Archive’s collection. 2007 In “Lebens-Mittel-Kunst” (Life-Means-Art), she displayed works from the Art Archive and from the collection of Berlin’s Social Artist Support.

2000/2001
In October, the exhibition “Between Black and White” opened at Beeskow Castle. Curator Otto Kummert thus provided the first comprehensive insight into Beeskow’s collection of printed graphics. In July 2001, LOS signed a new administrative agreement with the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A board of trustees was appointed and a new name was chosen: Kunstarchiv Beeskow – Archived Collection of Art from the GDR (Art Archive).

1999
As Head of Cultural Affairs for LOS, Wolfgang de Bruyn takes over the management of the Collection and Documentation Center. In the notorious exhibition “Official/Unofficial – The Art of the GDR” in Weimar, numerous works from the Beeskow collection are shown. The selection was made directly on site by curator Achim Preiß and students from Weimar. The exhibition develops into the negative culmination of the so-called “image dispute.”

1998
All existing structures dissolve: The LOS terminates the agreements with the Interest Group – and thus also with the three employees – as well as with the three federal states. Herbert Schirmer leaves Beeskow Castle. For several months, Jochen Spielmann becomes director of the Collection and Documentation Center and is responsible for the exhibition “Frame Change” at Beeskow Castle, which is understood as a deliberate defamation of the collection.

1996/1997
The artworks are housed in a converted grain warehouse in the immediate vicinity of Beeskow Castle and recorded in a database. Research associate Nicoletta Freitag and depot manager Hans-Jürgen Scharpak oversee the collection. This expands as the Berlin magistrate also sends a large proportion of the art he commissions in the GDR to Beeskow. A library is established, which Brigitte Weniger sets up.
Further exhibitions such as ‘Querformat II’ and ‘Die Schönheit der Macht’ as well as the international symposium ‘Die Depots der Kunst’ take place at Beeskow Castle.

1995
At the beginning of the year, two exhibitions with compiled collections open simultaneously at the DHM and on Burg Beeskow: “Art Commission” and “Landscape Format”. Public and media interest are very high.
In September, the LOS approves the founding of the “Collection and Documentation Center for Art of the GDR” at Burg Beeskow. With the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, it concludes an administrative agreement that regulates property and insurance issues. The interest group “new visual art” with Michael Freitag and Matthias Flügge is contractually obligated to operate the center, with Castle Director Herbert Schirmer taking over its management.

1994
In December 1994, additional artworks are brought to Beeskow. These are works created in the GDR on commission from parties and mass organizations. They were collected and documented under the direction of Monika Flacke, Collection Director at the German Historical Museum (DHM), by order of the Treuhandanstalt. Following a joint resolution by the new federal states, they are now returned according to the principle of origin. Berlin, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern choose Burg Beeskow as the storage location.

1993
In the summer of 1993, the first art transports arrive at Burg Beeskow. These are paintings, sculptures, and graphic works financed by the Cultural Fund in the GDR. Since 1992, Burg Beeskow has been developed into an East Brandenburg cultural center with a concert hall, exhibition, and studio spaces. Castle Director is Herbert Schirmer. In his capacity as the last Cultural Minister of the GDR, he had advocated for the preservation of this art collection in 1990 together with Wolfgang Patig, the last director of the Cultural Fund.