Contemporary history of the art world

Bildinfo

The sculpture Large Two Forms by Henry Moore in front of the former Federal Chancellery (today Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) in Bonn. It is exhibited there since September 19, 1979. Photo: Hans Weingartz, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

The research focus examines the contemporary history of art and the art business in its democratic-historical, socio-historical and socio-political contexts. The research program analyzes artists, the art trade and art recipients as social and economic actors in the field of tension between aesthetics, market events and public attempts at regulation. It also focuses on the social structure and interest politics of art associations and agents of public and private art promotion. What was the political significance of art, its ownership and understanding, in the accumulation of cultural capital, the marking of social distinction and the persistence or reshaping of social milieus? What role did art play as a location factor from a national and international perspective? The focus of the research is on the visual arts and the art business in the Federal Republic in their German-German and international interrelationships. The research area aims to profile art and its social "range of services" as a dynamic factor of social history in a divided and united Germany.

Head: Dr. Jutta Braun

Projekte

Jutta Braun

The post-history of National Socialism at BKM-funded institutions

Research study
(Jutta Braun, together with Michael Wildt, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
The Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media sent out a signal with a survey on coming to terms with National Socialism at around 100 BKM-funded cultural institutions in order to identify research deficits in the fields of visual arts, music, literature and film.

Jutta Braun

Art patronage in the Federal Republic of Germany (1945/49-2000)

Book project
The promotion of art played not only an artistic but also a socio-political role in the Federal Republic of Germany. This monograph examines the commitment of individual personalities in the transformation of the art and museum scene after 1945/49 and 1989/90.