Built in 1961 to divide the city of Berlin into eastern and western sectors, the infamous Berlin Wall has become an international symbol of oppression and of man's inhumanity to man. A constant reminder of the Cold War, the formidable barrier has presented a challenge to those courageous enough to risk everything in pursuit of freedom. Few who have seen the imposing Wall remain unaffected.
The Berlin Wall has also become a public gallery featuring the work of graffiti writers--West Berliners and foreign visitors alike--whose graphic, colorful, and anonymous political statements have converted the ninety-mile concrete and steel structure into a giant canvas of constantly changing art.
The graffiti creations are a source of interest and entertainment for most, but also serve as inspiration for others. Among the latter is California photographer Leland Rice, whose exhibit Illusions and Allusions: Photographs of the Berlin Wall was shown in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, August 14 through November 1. The exhibit was under the curatorship of Van Deren Coke, resident curator emeritus of photography at the museum.
Totally Magnetized
Rice, who admits being "totally magnetized" by the Wall, has found it a rich source of photographic imagery. The twenty-one large Cibachrome prints from his Berlin Wall series, ranging in size from 30 by 40 inches to 48 by 117 inches, focus on the brightly colored pictographic art, symbols, poetry, slogans, and expletives that cover the Wall's surface in layers.
Many of the images, such as the horrific yet poignant procession of maimed and grotesque figures in "Aspects of a Nocturnal Passage" resemble in style and sensibility the work of contemporary German expressionist painters from Berlin, such as George Baselitz, Markus Lupertz, and Rainier Fetting. Several of Rice's prints from the Berlin Wall series are included in "Berlinart 1961-1987," a major exhibition of work by contemporary Berlin artists and by American and European artists who have lived and worked in that city. ("Berlinart" will be shown in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from October 15, 1987 through January 3, 1988.)
Rice first visited the Berlin Wall in 1983 on a weekend adventure that evolved into an annual two-month intensive photographic pilgrimage. He returned several times to explore the subject photographically, and his images from those extensive explorations blend political, social, and artistic references with formal concerns.
Splattered Paint
Since the early 1970s, Rice has focused considerable attention on walls, and his first series, black and white photographs of vacant interiors, was titled Wall Sites. In the late 1970s and into the 1980s, his subjects were the walls of painters' studios where paint had splashed as the artists applied paint to canvas.
Exhibit curator Coke, who in 1962 taught Rice photography at Arizona State University, states that by choosing to photograph the color around the vacant space left on the walls, Rice was tying his pictures to the concerns of Minimalism and Color Field painting
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