The art of Jürgen Wittdorf in Schloss Biesdorf

Two weeks ago, a friend sent me an article¹ about the current exhibition at Schloss Biesdorf featuring the works of Jürgen Wittdorf (1932–2018). The idea of homoerotic art in the GDR intrigued me, so we decided to visit. For me, it was a fascinating experience - a retrospective of Wittdorf’s work, and to my surprise, I recognized some of his illustrations. One room later, I found out why: he was the illustrator for the children’s book “Tiere im Zirkus” by Wladimir Durow², a book I still own, though I’d never known anything about the artist behind it.

Wittdorf became known in the early 1960s, primarily for his book illustrations and large-format woodcuts and linocuts. Especially the cycles “Für die Jugend” (1962) and “Jugend und Sport” (1964) have a striking realism, though I wonder which images are ideals and which are “real.” Socialist realism, after all, was about presenting the world not as it was, but as it was dreamed to be.³ With that in mind, one graphic stood out for me: “Freundschaftsfoto” from 1964⁴ - a group of diverse, athletic, half-naked young men taking pictures, including three Black men. Was this a real scene, or was it the dream?⁵ Either way, I liked the modern depiction. Apparently not a dream, though, were the other graphics from “Für die Jugend,” which show teenagers in casual scenes, like a group with bicycles or a kissing couple. These images triggered official criticism for being “westernized,” but young people felt represented and praised his work. Wittdorf even received the FDJ art prize in 1963.

Wittdorf’s “inner outing” came with the cycle “Jugend und Sport.” The woodcut “Unter der Dusche” shows seven athletic, naked young men, arguing in different poses under the shower - almost a reference to classical Greek art.

Although homosexuality was decriminalized in 1968, it remained a social taboo, and it seems Wittdorf channeled that tension into his art. Dozens of sketched nudes followed, though he had a relatively good life in the GDR as a member of the SED and the Association of Visual Artists⁶ (though he was probably more drawn to the humanistic ideal than party politics). After the fall of the Wall, his career ended and he had to sell his work, eventually relying on social assistance until his death in 2018. It was a bit funny to see, in his later pictures (with all the leather), how Wittdorf discovered West Berlin’s gay scene.⁷

The exhibition also features works by contemporary artists like Norbert Bisky, Veneta Androva, Harry Hachtmeister, and Bettina Semmer. Semmer’s work⁸ has an interesting concept: she used profile photos of men from a dating website, paired with the first messages she received from them. Translated into sketches, the men look almost fragile to me. I wonder how this would work if translated into Polaroids instead of sketches - would it be more like Robert Mapplethorpe’s work⁹ or Tom Bianchi’s?¹⁰

All in all, the exhibition was really interesting and gave me some inspiration for portrait photography. It’s good to see Wittdorf finally getting more attention.