Five Foreign Students Exhibit at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, 1966
Abed Abdi at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, 1966
An exhibition of works by five foreign students of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts took place at the Brühlsche Terrasse, the Academy’s exhibition gallery, from 20 May to 30 June 1966.
The exhibition featured Dino Di Rosa of Chile, Mauricio Boizeau of Colombia, Elly Johnsen of Norway, Elis Kankkunen of Finland, and Abed Abdi.
Lea Grundig, an artist and lecturer at the Academy, curated the exhibition. She also delivered the opening speech. The original text of her speech remains in her archive at the Archive of the Berlin Academy of Arts.
The first exhibition of its kind
In her opening remarks, Grundig noted that foreign students and artists had visited the Academy for several years. However, this was the first exhibition there devoted exclusively to their work.
She explained that artists working in the Academy’s guest studios worked independently. They remained in contact with the Academy’s teachers, but followed their own study plans. Other foreign students took part in the Academy’s general programme under the responsibility of its teachers.
“Dear friends!
We have gathered here for this small exhibition, for a joyful and stimulating encounter with our foreign guests and their artistic work.
Although foreign students and artists have been coming to our school as guests for many years, this is the first exhibition that exclusively shows their work.
The artists who come to our guest studios work independently, although they remain in contact with our teachers. Their studies, however, proceed according to their own plans. We also have students who undertake the general training followed by all students, and for whom their teachers bear full responsibility.”
Lea Grundig on Abed Abdi
Grundig also addressed Abed Abdi’s work in her opening speech. She referred to his landscapes and his depictions of people. She emphasized the way his paintings presented his homeland and its people to the Dresden audience.
“Abdi’s landscapes and people bring his country very close to us — a country that glows hot beneath the sun, and its industrious people, in their dignity and in their daily struggle. We feel them with heartfelt interest. Abdi has awakened this in us through his paintings, and in doing so has increased what was a rather inadequate knowledge of his country.”
Art as cultural exchange
Grundig concluded her speech by emphasizing the cultural role of the foreign students. She described them as representatives of their countries who could broaden the audience’s understanding of other societies.
“Thus our foreign guests are at the same time messengers of their countries, who broaden and enliven our ideas about them. And that, friends, seems to me particularly valuable.
Let us make use of the great opportunities to learn more about the people of their countries through our guests. And we hope and wish that you, dear foreign friends, will become messengers of our country, telling others about our difficult national struggle, our reconstruction and our friendship.”
Participating artists:
Dino Di Rosa (Chile)
Mauricio Boizeau (Columbia)
Elly Johnsen (Norway)
Elis Kankkunen (Finland)
Abed Abdi
Thanks to Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler and Amir A. Abdi for their research for this article
