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Berlin Wall Graffiti Art

Collected by: San Jose State University, School of Information

Archived since: Nov, 2014

Description:

Our mission is to capture the public perception of the art (also known as graffiti) on Germany’s Berlin Wall on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in November 2014. This is a collection of images, discussions, and a website devoted to the graffiti on the Wall. It deals in particular with the East Side Gallery in Berlin, the Wall’s famous murals and some of the controversy associated with the Wall and its graffiti artwork.

Subject:   Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989, in art Graffiti Berlin-Politics and government City planning--Germany--Berlin Graffiti artists Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989--Pictorial works Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989 Berlin (Germany)--Buildings, structures, etc Art galleries, Commercial Art--Germany--Berlin--Exhibitions

Page 1 of 1 (12 Total Results)

Title: "Walls Are Not Everlasting": Preserving the East Side Gallery in Berlin | The Los Angeles Review of Books

URL: http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/walls-everlasting-preserving-east-side-gallery-berlin/

Description: This is the weekly electronic publication of the Los Angeles Review of Books. Yi discusses the difficulties of the East Side Gallery to preserve the existing graffiti art on the Berlin Wall. Some artists are painting over other artists’ works to create new works on the wall without permission. The article is a good history of the East Side Gallery, which began in January 1990 following the fall of the Wall in November 1989. It also discusses the gentrification pressures on the outdoor gallery’s riverfront property, which is becoming increasing desirable real estate.

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Subject:   Graffiti Graffiti artists Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989, in art Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989--Pictorial works Art--Germany--Berlin--Exhibitions Art galleries, Commercial Berlin (Germany)--Buildings, structures, etc Berlin (Germany)--Politics and government City planning--Germany--Berlin

Title: Berlin Wall Photographs: East Side Gallery Berlin

URL: http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/photographs/eastsidegallery.htm

Description: This website was begun in Spring 1997 by Heiko Burkhardt and is copyrighted. Dailysoft.com is an IT and project management firm. The photographs page shows the Berlin Wall at Muehlenstrasse which was painted by about 100 artists from all over the world in the beginning of 1990. The gallery has become famous as East Side Gallery and is the world's largest open air gallery. The photographs were taken between 1990 and 2001.

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Subject:   Graffiti Graffiti artists Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989--Pictorial works Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989, in art Berlin (Germany)--Buildings, structures, etc Berlin (Germany)--Politics and government Art galleries, Commercial Art--Germany--Berlin--Exhibitions

Title: Developer removes segments of Berlin Wall at East Side Gallery | News | DW.DE | 27.03.2013

URL: http://www.dw.de/developer-removes-segments-of-berlin-wall-at-east-side-gallery/a-16701736/

Description: This is the website for DW (Deutsche Welle) which represents Germany in the international media landscape. The article discusses a developer tearing down four sections of the East Side Gallery’s grafitti-covered artwork on the Berlin Wall to make room for high-rise luxury departments. It captures the tensions between gentrification and those who want the Cold War icon to remain.

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Subject:   Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989, in art Graffiti Art--Germany--Berlin--Exhibitions Art galleries, Commercial Berlin-Politics and government Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989--Pictorial works Berlin (Germany)--Buildings, structures, etc Graffiti artists City planning--Germany--Berlin

Title: East Side Gallery Berlin

URL: http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.de/data/eng/index-eng.htm

Description: This is the website for the East Side Gallery which is a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany. It contains 101 large format images on a 1.3 kilometer section on the east side of the Berlin Wall which artists created since the Wall fell in 1989. The website is in English and German and began in 1999, ten years after the fall of the Wall.

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Title: The Berlin Canvas (Part I) - Fair Observer

URL: http://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/berlin-canvas-part-i/

Description: This first part of a three-part series discusses the political significance of graffiti on the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989. The author says: “Graffiti artists consider that public spaces belong to the community and as such community members should decide what is displayed in them. They consider that a bare wall is “a symbol of a sterilized, tightly regulated environment” and that they are much more disconcerting to look at, than one covered in graffiti. With this in mind, it can be argued that West Berliners had the right to graffiti the Wall as they were obliged to co-exist with it. In their eyes the GDR was the culprit; it constructed a colossal structure and so it was their job to deface it. Two of the Wall’s most well-known artists; Thierry Noir and Christopher Bouchet argued that something had to be done in order to transform the Wall’s boring appearance. They believed that it was necessary for West Berliners to carry out some kind of physical reaction against the daily burden of dealing with the Wall. However, the objective of the graffiti was not to embellish or beautify the border. Instead, graffiti artists maintained that the inexistence of graffiti would lead the GDR to believe that West Berliners accepted the Wall. Since they were unable to make the Wall disappear, they attempted to show a kind of resistance that may otherwise have been more difficult to express consistently.”

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Subject:   Graffiti Berlin-Politics and government Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989, in art

Title: The Berlin Canvas (Part II) - Fair Observer

URL: http://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/berlin-canvas-part-ii/

Description: This second part of a three-part series discusses the political significance of graffiti on the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989. The author says: “An examination of the Wall’s graffiti enables us to discern the themes and messages of its graffiti. Most images reflected individual experiences, whilst some embodied political caricatures. In general, however, the graffiti highlighted the absurdity of the Wall’s existence. The graffiti on the Wall made the Wall visible, and by doing so it frustrated the West’s tendencies to ignore it. In fact, Brian Ladd, author of The Ghosts of Berlin argued that much of the graffiti reflected the West’s inclinations to “heap scorn on the Wall”. This was particularly reflected by a series of both pictorial and verbal denunciations of the GDR and the Wall itself.” Bello Perez also discusses parallels with the West Bank Barrier Wall between Palestine and Israel.

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Subject:   Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989, in art Berlin-Politics and government Graffiti

Title: The Berlin Canvas (Part III) - Fair Observer

URL: http://www.fairobserver.com/region/europe/berlin-canvas-part-iii/

Description: This third part of a three-part series discusses the political significance of graffiti on the Berlin Wall from 1961-1989. The author says: “The emergence of street art and graffiti has created very different opinions among the general public, scholars and artists. A close examination of its history and the study of the Berlin Wall as a “white canvas” allows us to conclude that graffiti is essentially both a representative political commentary and a form of political activism… After comparing the Berlin Wall with Palestine’s West Bank Barrier, we can truthfully say that Walls have often been used as mediums for political activism. Both these barriers exemplify how two different forms of government provided the perfect canvas for street art to appear. The graffiti found on both walls deals with the injustice posed by them and their rejection in the international arena. We have found that the graffiti on both Walls was an act of political activism and in turn we have legitimised the emergence of graffiti and street art, as it provides a valuable commentary of today’s socio-economic and political situation.”

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Title: Graffiti in the death strip: the Berlin wall's first street artist tells his story | Art and design | The Guardian

URL: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/apr/03/thierry-noir-graffiti-berlin-wall/

Description: This story on TheGuardian.com tells the story of Thierry Noir, who was the first street artist to paint graffiti on the Berlin Wall in 1984. He painted on the West German side and had to dodge the East German guards patrolling the Wall. The story shows an evolution of his work over the years in both text and photos.

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URL: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/19/berlin-wall-freedom-painters

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Title: Berlin Wall given a facelift as freedom painters return | World news | The Guardian

URL: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/19/berlin-wall-freedom-painters/

Description: This article discusses the controversial effort in the summer of 2009 by some 120 artists to restore their graffiti artwork on the Berlin Wall. The existing artwork was painted over and then redone, although some artists, like Russian artist Dmitri Vrubel, who painted the famous image of the East German leader Erich Honecker kissing his Soviet counterpart, Leonid Brezhnev, told German media he would not paint the same image as before, Like some of the other artists, he thought their restoration efforts were not fairly compensated.

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Page 1 of 1 (12 Total Results)