In 1982, curator Rudi Fuchs aimed to restore the ‘dignity’ and aesthetic ‘autonomy’ of contemporary art in documenta 7. In a dramatic departure from the ‘petty wars of style and manner’, he replaced traditional groupings with unexpected, even jarring, encounters between artists. He surprised audiences by placing contemporary artworks alongside classicist sculptures from museum collections in Kassel, underscoring relationships between old and new. This groundbreaking curatorial approach, which he called ‘weaving a tapestry’, used poetic metaphor to create unconventional connections between works while celebrating the artistic individualism of each participant. Almost forty years later, looking back at the works created in this historic moment creates linkages between past and present, in keeping with the spirit of the original exhibition.

Georg Baselitz’s works from the 1980s marked a shift towards a freer, more expressionist application of paint and use of colour, resulting in works of astonishing vigour and formal power. In Blick aus dem Fenster (1982), the roughly articulated head emerges from the murky depths of the gestural black background, balanced against the white round of the moon. The figure’s facial features are coarsely articulated in red and black lines against the underlying yellow, reduced to essentials that convey the impression of a face without actually depicting one.All kinds of new things emerged in his paintings [from the 1980s], along with different variations in the painter’s signature style, which was always energetic and restless. Even now I am captivated by their ingenuity and restlessness. Now I see more clearly that Baselitz always wants to make each painting (or every group of paintings) completely new, something that has never been made before. — Rudi Fuchs, 2018

The decisive graphic lines and strong contouring in Skulptur (1982) reflect a close affinity with Baselitz’s sculptures, which he began creating in the 1980s. Both show direct traces of the artist’s hand, whether as pencil strokes on paper or tool marks on wood. The artist explicitly links the two mediums: ‘In sculpture, using the saw is an aggressive process which is the equivalent of drawing. It’s a linear signal. For example, when you can see the ribs, this hasn’t got an anatomical significance, it’s not justified by anatomy, but it is a fascination that gives life to the body.’

The 1980s was a pivotal decade that saw Baselitz develop a truly international reputation, through his participation in widely publicised exhibitions such asA New Spirit in Painting (1981) and German Art in the Twentieth Century (1985) at the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Zeitgeist (1982) at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; and Expressions: New Art from Germany (1983), which toured the United States. That same year, a major retrospective was presented at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, later travelling to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Kunsthalle Basel.

The 1980s marked a stylistic departure in Gilbert & George’s pictures, which became bigger, brighter and bolder as they introduced vivid primary colours into their previously monochrome works. As they explain, ‘At first we used red and then we used red and yellow. Now we use more colours, but in each picture they mean something different. It depends on how we put them to work. They can be symbolic or they can be atmospheric or emotional.’ While retaining their characteristic gridded format, the individual images flow across these internal borders to form complex figural arrangements, enlivened by the strong use of colour that enhances the dramatic content of the works.

Our Art is the friendship formed between the viewer and our pictures. Each picture speaks of a ‘Particular View’ which the viewer may consider in the light of his own life. The true function of art is to bring about new understanding, progress and advancement. — Gilbert & George, 1986NAKED BEAUTY and STREET MEET (both 1982) form part of Gilbert & George’s MODERN FAITH series, which was exhibited in 1983 at the Sonnabend Gallery, New York, and in their first US retrospective the following year, which toured to venues including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Baltimore Museum of Art and Guggenheim Museum, New York. The content of these works centred on urban living and the hopes and fears associated with contemporary society. They were awarded the Turner Prize in 1986, followed by a major exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, in 1987.

I had never seen a woman like that before. It was like looking at someone from another planet. — Robert MapplethorpeWhen Robert Mapplethorpe met Lisa Lyon — the first World Women’s Bodybuilding Champion — at a party in 1979, he was captivated by the incongruity between her masculine musculature and feminine features. The two collaborated on a series of over two hundred photographs, a selection of which were shown at documenta 7 in 1982 and published in the book Lady: Lisa Lyon the following year. Embodying what they termed ‘a succession of fantasies’, in these images Lyon ‘escape[d] the shackles of womanly stereotype’, transforming her body into a symbol of female strength.

Mapplethorpe’s career flourished in the 1980s, as he continued to refine his techniques and formats. As his renown grew, his studio attracted figures from New York’s cultural elite, including David Hockney, Iggy Pop and Grace Jones, whose likenesses he captured in photographic portraits. Six of the photographs on which he collaborated with Lisa Lyon were published in Artforum in 1980, followed by an exhibition of these works in 1983 at Leo Castelli, New York. In 1988, the year before his death, his work was shown in four major institutional exhibitions, organised by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and National Portrait Gallery, London.

Joseph Beuys participated in documenta in Kassel five times between 1964 and 1982, as well as representing Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1976 and again in 1980. A major retrospective of his work opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1979 and he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm, the following year. The artist increased his commitment to political and ecological activism during this period, and founded the German Green Party in 1980. He was awarded the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize in Duisburg shortly before his death in 1986 and his acceptance speech included a concise summation of his view of Social Sculpture: ‘Everything is sculpture!’

It was in the context of the monochrome Übermalungen that Rainer, in the mid-fifties, began to use the shape of the cross. The theme of the cross came to an end with the Übermalungen, until it reappeared around 1980 in connection with the ‘chaotic’ finger paintings. The vertical-horizontal structure of the cross, he said, was like monochrome painting, a way to arrive at the motionless picture [because] the cross subdues the visual domination of a single direction. — Rudi Fuchs, 1989Rainer’s international reputation flourished during this decade, with important solo exhibitions at the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1981); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1984); Abbazia di San Gregorio, Venice (1986); a Self Portraits show that travelled the United States (1986); and a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1989). His work was also included in The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985 and Avant-Garde in the Eighties at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1986–1987), as well as entering the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum.

The first finger paintings originated in 1973. Rainer has told how he was working frenziedly on a large Face Farce when his brush broke. Because he did not want to lose his concentration, he carried on with his fingers. He liked the feel of paint on his fingers. He understood that painting with hand and fingers ... provided a directness and swiftness of touch that could be another kind of translation of an emotional state of mind into an image. — Rudi Fuchs, 1989

First exhibited at documenta 7, Emerging ’82 - 1 and Emerging ’82 - 3 (both 1982) are characteristic of Emilio Vedova’s paintings from this decade, widely recognised as the acme of his career. In 1980, the artist had travelled to Mexico, where the colours and immense landscapes made a lasting impression on him. ‘...Mexico. All at once the kaleidoscope of emotions, of wide American spaces, of scents and colours was right back,’ he wrote to Rudi Fuchs in 1982. ‘The clashes were immediately very harsh. A new geography of immense “horizontal” spaces. My feeling is that of being an ant.’ Upon his return, Vedova introduced an explosion of colour into his palette, refining the abstract painterly style that had defined his practice throughout his career.

Vedova talks about his painting with broad gestures that reflect the movement of the brush across the canvas ... a man of natural talent, in profound and intimate contact with his work and his material. Vedova paints his canvases with the same simple and astonishing naturalness with which a peasant ploughs the earth. This freedom to be himself, this freshness, are qualities that no one will ever be able to take away from him. — Rudi Fuchs, 1982

Vedova was the Italian representative at the first documenta in Kassel in 1955, and his work was exhibited there again in 1959, 1964 and 1982. His inclusion in documenta 7 demonstrated his significance for the up-and-coming generation of neo-expressive artists. That same year, his work was shown at the 40th Venice Biennale and in a solo exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, also curated by Rudi Fuchs. This preceded a number of publications and solo exhibitions as the decade progressed, including a retrospective curated by Germano Celant at the Museo Correr, Venice, and a show at the Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich.