From 5 September 2026, the MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam will be hosting a comprehensive retrospective dedicated to the artistic oeuvre of Annemirl Bauer (born in 1939 in Jena, died in 1989 in East Berlin). Annemirl Bauer was a critical and independent voice from the GDR and an artist who was long denied recognition in art history.
Image above: Annemirl Bauer, o. T., o. J., Öl auf Holz (Schublade), 38,5 × 40,5 cm. Annemirl Bauer Archiv © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026. Foto: Jens Ziehe.
Spanning over three decades of her artistic career – from the late 1950s until her untimely death in 1989 – this exhibition showcases around 150 paintings, drawings, collages and objects from this extraordinary body of work. Organised into four thematic sections, this retrospective explores Annemirl Bauer’s works, which address role models and gender relations within patriarchal power structures, self-empowerment, human rights, environmental destruction and state oppression.
The titles of the exhibition sections are drawn from words in the artist’s own works and writings. As in diary entries, she recorded both private and political matters in her numerous works. She tirelessly documented what she saw and what preoccupied her. Annemirl Bauer’s works are thus testaments to her self-image as a painter and uncompromising observer who continually championed social justice and rebelled against the repression of SED policies.
Annemirl Bauer was denied a major institutional exhibition during her lifetime. It is to the credit of her daughter, Amrei Bauer – executor of her estate and founder and curator of the Annemirl Bauer House in Brandenburg – that a large part of her body of work has been preserved and kept together as a coherent collection. This exhibition makes a large number of works accessible to a wider public, not least thanks to the extensive research and restoration work carried out by DAS MINSK.
The exhibition’s curator, Marie Gerbaulet, summarises the poignancy and relevance of Annemirl Bauer’s work as follows:
“Viewing life through the lens of Annemirl Bauer’s visual worlds is challenging, moving and can at times be painful. For her works are honest, complex, authentic, uncomfortable and remain highly relevant to this day. Her courage in publicly questioning political decisions led to state repression, which is why her artistic work received hardly any public attention for a long time.
Through her fearlessness and her painterly power, Annemirl Bauer created a distinctive and independent body of artistic work that enabled her, amidst all the contradictions and turmoil that surrounded her, to live a self-determined life and to act in an informed and defiant manner. Her perception and reflection of the major upheavals and challenges of her time in everyday life and interpersonal relationships resonate with our experience of the present day.”
INTERPERSONAL LANDSCAPES
The first chapter of the exhibition is devoted to one of the central themes of Annemirl Bauer’s artistic practice: the question of what it means to be human. This is particularly evident in her portraits and her mother-and-child motifs, as well as in her depictions of her relationships with others and with herself. Furthermore, the exhibition explores Bauer’s identity as a woman and mother, motherhood, and her journey of self-discovery within these roles. Her works express existential feelings such as loss, deep connection, dependence, vulnerability, closeness, separation and becoming independent.
WOMEN, IF WE DO NOTHING TODAY, TOMORROW WE WILL LIVE AS WE DID THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY
Der erste Teil der Ausstellung widmet sich einem der zentralen Themen im künstlerischen Schaffen von Annemirl Bauer: der Frage, was es bedeutet, Mensch zu sein. Dies zeigt sich besonders deutlich in ihren Porträts und ihren Mutter-Kind-Motiven sowie in ihren Darstellungen ihrer Beziehungen zu anderen und zu sich selbst. Darüber hinaus beleuchtet die Ausstellung Bauers Identität als Frau und Mutter, das Thema Mutterschaft sowie ihren Weg der Selbstfindung innerhalb dieser Rollen. Ihre Werke bringen existenzielle Gefühle wie Verlust, tiefe Verbundenheit, Abhängigkeit, Verletzlichkeit, Nähe, Trennung und das Selbstständigwerden zum Ausdruck.
FRAUEN, WENN WIR HEUTE NICHTS TUN, WERDEN WIR MORGEN SO LEBEN WIE VORGESTERN
From the 1980s onwards, Annemirl Bauer’s works captured the visible and invisible power structures that, as a result of the SED’s realpolitik, were having an increasing impact on her own life and that of the citizens of the GDR. As a keen observer and, at the same time, a victim of political repression by the Ministry for State Security (MfS or Stasi), Bauer’s works evolved into a form of artistic resistance. In numerous works, she uses images and text to criticise the failure of the social utopia of ‘real existing socialism’, the danger of disinformation and the disenfranchisement of citizens, environmental pollution, the construction of the Wall and the associated feeling of being confined and deprived of freedom, as well as the palpable sense of confinement.
I WANT TO EXPLORE THE GLOBE MYSELF
The fourth and final chapter of the exhibition is devoted to the theme of ‘travel’, which had fascinated Annemirl Bauer since her childhood. Shortly before her untimely death in 1987/88, she travelled one last time – illegally, with a travel permit for West Berlin – to the Canary Islands in Spain. During this trip, she produced numerous small-format drawings. The exhibition also features the artist’s travel collages. Travelling sharpened Bauer’s political acumen and enabled her to discover new visual themes and techniques, allowing her to process what she had seen and experienced immediately.
She remained a critical observer throughout, not limiting herself to depicting impressive landscapes or urban spaces, but also addressing social injustices: Motifs such as the accumulation of waste from affluence, cityscapes dominated by high-rise architecture, and the precarious position of women appear as a visual distillation of her critique of the social and political conditions of patriarchal societies. However, most of Bauer’s travel aspirations were thwarted by the SED’s restrictive border policies.
THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
To accompany the exhibition, DISTANZ Verlag is publishing the catalogue Annemirl Bauer. Bruch ist in der Welt, which explores the complexity of Annemirl Bauer’s artistic universe. In addition to a contemporary art-historical analysis by Kerstin Schankweiler, the publication also includes a literary essay by the author Carolin Würfel on the artist’s life. A conversation with Amrei Bauer, the executor of the estate as well as founder and curator of the Annemirl Bauer House in Brandenburg, and an essay by Doris Paschiller, the author, psychologist and close friend of the artist, offer different perspectives on the biographical, painterly, social and political aspects of Annemirl Bauer’s work and include personal experiences and memories of her.
The exhibition is curated by Marie Gerbaulet, with Luisa Bachmann as curatorial assistant. It has been organised in close collaboration with Amrei Bauer, the estate administrator and founder and curator of the Annemirl Bauer House in Brandenburg.
EXHIBITION AT THE KABINETT DES MINSK
The exhibition in the MINSK exhibition room traces the history of Wilfriede Maaß’s workshop in East Berlin. In the 1980s, the ceramics workshop at 21 Schönfließer Straße – which also became a gallery after German reunification – was an important space for non-conformist art in the GDR. On display are tableware sets, plates, vases and experimental ceramic sculptures moulded by Wilfriede Maaß and painted by various artists. These objects from Wilfriede Maaß’s collection enter into a dialogue with paintings from the 1980s and 1990s from the Hasso Plattner Collection, as well as with items on loan from key figures associated with the workshop.
The exhibition is curated by Daniel Milnes.
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 5 September 2026 – Sunday, 7 February 2027
Opening hours: Wednesday – Monday, 10 am – 7 pm
WHERE?
DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam
Max-Planck-Straße 17
14473 Potsdam
