Die Wurzeln des Kalten Krieges. 1980.
Oil on canvas.
Stretcher with hand-written title. 70 x 100 cm (27.5 x 39.3 in). [SM].

• "Die Wurzeln des Kalten Krieges" (The Roots of the Cold War) was painted the year A. R. Penck fled the GDR.
• The vigorous brushwork goes hand in hand with the pressing movement of the forms from left to right, expressively staged in a visually impressive manner.
• The tensions between East and West, between the most important spheres of power on Earth after the Second World War, become evident in this picture.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Werner, Cologne (with a label on the stretcher).
Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich.
Collection Haniel, Duisburg (since 1984, acquired directly from the aforementioned).

LITERATURE: Franz Haniel & Cie GmbH, Die Sammlung Haniel, Ernst Wasmuth Verlag,
Tübingen, Berlin 2010, with color illu. on pp. 211 and 224.