ATT MÅLA TILL VARJE PRIS - Annemirl Bauers konstnärskap i 1980-talets DDR

Abstract

This thesis explores the life and work of a female artist in the GDR in the 1980s. Annemirl Bauer was born 1939 and got her Art education in the GDR. The special circumstances for artists in the socialist republic are described in order to show Bauer´s conditions. A firm believer in the socialist system of the socialistic republic, she was anxious to participate, she did so by written protests sent to the board of the VBK, the professional association for artists. That rendered her harassment from the Ministry of State Security, which severely restrained her in her artistry. My study shows how Bauer´s political and feminist statements were a crucial element in her paintings and drawings. Bauer was made aware of the mechanisms of a gender hierarchy from Western Europe. She is parodying the psychoanalytic theory of penis envy. She uses ancient myths like other contemporary GDR artists did but not in order to hide her criticism against society. Using a semiotic method, I analyse three of her pictures more thoroughly, both visual and verbal elements titles and texts in them as well, I partly reveal hidden messages. The causes of her marginalisation is explored: Being a woman, being a dissident. Bauer died in 1989 a few months before the Wall came down. In Germany after 1990, there are a limited number of publications about Annemirl Bauer. Little has been written about Art in the GDR in the English-speaking world and almost nothing in Sweden.