The artists from the “New Leipzig School” have been described as the 21st century’s first artistic phenomenon. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Curator Christopher Cook and exhibition co-curator Mark Coetzee, curator of the Rubell Family Collection, located in Miami, Florida explore what drew the Rubells to the works.

In the second half of their conversation, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Curator Christopher Cook and exhibition co-curator Mark Coetzee, curator of the Rubell Family Collection, talk in more detail about the city of Leipzig and the teaching style of its Academy of Visual Arts.

Artist Christopher Ruckhäberle grew up in West Germany in the 1970s and 80s and moved to the United States to study animation. He then returned to Germany to study painting at the Academy of Art in Leipzig. Beth Harris, Curator of Education at the Kemper Museum, recently interviewed Ruckhäberle, whose paintings are included in the Life After Death exhibition.

On the opening night of the exhibition Life After Death: New Leipzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection at the Kemper Museum, we asked some of the museum patrons to share their reactions. Listen and watch the audio slideshow, with images from opening night, here.

Kemper Museum Docent Winfried Wiegraebe was born and raised in West Germany, but after reunification, he lived in East Germany near Leipzig. Here, Wiegraebe describes the day the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, and some of the reactions to a united Germany. He also talks about his love for contemporary art.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Kemper Museum presents a film series called Behind the Wall Film Classics. Dr. Larson Powell, assistant professor of German and film studies at UMKC, highlights the challenges of Eastern Bloc filmmaking.