Rich colours, a bizarre universe of characters and rebellious humour - conformist boredom looks quite different. The graphic design of this ‘production co-operative of craftsmen’ of the former GDR, PGH for short, is bursting with energetic creative drive. The East Berlin artists' group wrote its vision of a glowing future on its banner in 1989, shortly before the Wall came down. Its members Detlef Beck (BECK), Anke Feuchtenberger, Holger Fickelscherer and Henning Wagenbreth represent the creative appropriation of social change during the period of German reunification.
In the former GDR, a craft production cooperative (PGH) was a voluntary association of craftsmen and tradespeople who worked together. In case of the PGH Glühende Zukunft, it was the cartoonist BECK, the comic artist and illustrator Anke Feuchtenberger, the comic artist and cartoonist Holger Fickelscherer and the graphic artist and illustrator Henning Wagenbreth who worked together from 1989 to 1995. Henning Wagenbreth founded a PGH for artistic productions back in 1988. The name was inspired by the horticultural production co-operative ‘Blühende Zukunft' (Blooming Future).
During the period in which the PGH Glühende Zukunft was active, a diverse, socially and politically committed oeuvre was created. The diverse formats, printing techniques and materials, bold colours and strong contrasts are striking. In combination with striking figurative motifs, an expressive and distinctive visual language was created.
With the exhibition ‘PGH Glowing Future’, the Bröhan-Museum is presenting a continuation of its series on important graphic design. Following the jazz posters by Niklaus Troxler, the concert posters by Günther Kieser, the French graphic design collective Grapus, Otl Aicher's graphic design for Olympia 72 and the Krautrock music posters, the exhibition ‘PGH Glowing Future’ not only presents an artistic signature, but also the image of a promise kept, in which the aesthetics of a new beginning are just as inscribed as the political commitment: demanding, optimistic and free.