im Graphik-Kabinett
For the first time in the nearly forty years since its exhibition “The Exotic Poster” (1987) the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is once again presenting a highlight of its extensive poster collection: the political posters of Klaus Staeck.
It was in the 1970s that the graphic artist, lawyer, and activist Klaus Staeck turned to the poster as a medium for exploring themes such as the environment, consumerism, war, migration, exploitation, identity, and social imbalances. By means of irony and exaggeration, the provocative text-image combinations of these works appeal to the public’s critical consciousness as a way of calling attention to grievances in our Western society.
The exhibition “Careful, Art!” will feature posters of the 1970s to ’90s and examine their topicality against the background of society’s present-day discourses. The show will also be the first to focus on examples in which Staeck reinterpreted art-historical classics from Dürer to Manet to Lenbach and, through his choice of the mass medium offset printing, reassessed art’s function, impact, and role in society. “Art doesn’t happen in the museum gallery”: Along with other artists—among them Joseph Beuys—Klaus Staeck has devoted himself to furthering the cause of art’s freedom and democratization in various actions since the late 1960s.
Credit: Klaus Staeck, Schöne Aussichten, 1987, Offsetdruck, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung, erworben 1987 Land Baden-Württemberg, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024.