Art on the Border: Galerie René Block in 1960s and 70s Berlin and New York
Christine Mehring, Reinhold Heller, Darby English
My dissertation considers the pivotal role of Galerie René Block in West Berlin (1964 – 79) and New York (1974 – 76). Offering a new model for the study of postwar art, I insist that postwar German and American gallerists were crucial agents in defining the conceptual significance of artists, consolidating art movements, and disseminating art through national and international networks. In it, I examine how Galerie Block, located on the frontlines of the Cold War and on the periphery of the art world, spurred the first broad artistic engagement with Germany’s catastrophic past and division, and created networks of exchange across geopolitical and transatlantic barriers.
Art in Berlin: from Rubble to Reunification (instructor) Art 101 (Instructor)
“Wolf Vostell and the Law of Concrete” Wolf Vostell Sculpture Conservation Workshop University of Chicago, June 2012 Participant in a Roundtable, “Narrating European Art, 1945/89” University of Chicago and eikones/Universität Basel Chicago, February 2012 “Sigmar Polke’s Hot Cold War Dots” Sigmar Polke: (Art) History of Everything? College Art Association Annual Conference, February 2012, Los Angeles, CA “Galerie Block: Dealing with the Past in Cold War Berlin” The Visual Arts in Cold War Germany and Beyond German Studies Association, October 2010, Oakland, CA “Blockade ’69: Art, Politics and Cold War Berlin” Co-Organizer: Borders, Boundaries, Transgressions: German Art from 1961- 1990 Cold War Cultures Conference, September 2010, Austin, TX
Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, 2010-11 Fulbright US Student Fellow, Berlin, Germany, 2009-10