Special Exhibition "Art and Teaching at the TU Dresden in the 1990s"

A project by the Office of Academic Heritage in cooperation with the Department of Art Education at the Institute of Art and Music and with the Chair of Architectural Delineation at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Dresden

May 12 – July 7, 2023
University Gallery (Galerie der Kustodie) in the Görges Building, TU Dresden

Art and teaching have a long tradition at the Technical University Dresden (TUD). The extensive collection of art owned by the university reflects the work of artists active there. The foundation for the university’s collection was laid in the 19th century, and with the systematic establishment of the art collection in the early 1950s, a specific focus took shape that documented the activity of architecture professors and assistants  through the late 1980s. With the Peaceful Revolution of 1989/90, a profound transformation took place at the TUD as it became a full university. The Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander School of Education was integrated into the university and the TU’s first faculty of philosophy was founded in 1993. At the same time, significant changes took place in teaching and administration. Based on restructuring and evaluation, institutes and chairs, entire departments or faculties were reassembled in the course of political transformation.

In the exhibition, Art and Teaching in the 1990s, we address these continuities, ruptures and new beginnings. This group exhibition, featuring more than 40 artworks, also questions the significance of art education at the TUD in the post-reunification years and what this has meant both for the self-image of an educational institution in an era of restructuring and for society as a whole. We take two departments as examples that demonstrate how art and art education can be understood as a mirror of a society in transition: the Department of Art Education, which was integrated into the Institute of Art and Music, and the Faculty of Architecture for Foundations of Design and Architectural Delineation, with its two chairs in design and delineation.

The exhibition brings together an extraordinarily broad range of artistic techniques and forms of expression, from nude and freehand drawing, textile design, ceramics and environmental design to modeling, sculpture, photography, puppetry and animation.

Werke der Ausstellung

The work of artists active in teaching reflects changing pedagogical concepts and at the same time are subjective expressions and reflections. The paintings, drawing, objects and videos date from the period immediately before 1989/90 and the 1990s, and exemplify individual engagement with form, material, composition and contemporary events at a moment on the threshold of epochal change.

^{Supported by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the TU Dresden e.V., the Faculty of Architecture and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the TUD.}