Klaus Staeck, Bitterfeld, market place
April 1989, color photography, 50.8 x 76.8 cm
Inv. no. 2012/16/K2, acquired in 2012
Since the beginning of the 1970s Klaus Staeck is a graphic artist well-known for his political posters. In the tradition of John Heartfield he uses photomontage and combines pictures with biting, sarcastic texts. Conservative politicians felt repeatedly provoked by his satirical posters and postcards derived thereof and sold commercially; thus leading to various legal disputes. His photographic works are much less known. The artist is dealing with the absurdities of everyday life, having a melancholic point of view and using gentle irony, and by this finding his own imagery. He discovered lost and bleak places as well as industrial wasteland in Eastern and Western Germany long before the fall of the Berlin Wall.