M HKA Ensembles

Drawing

Schaufenster-Plakat Selbsthilfe Frauen, Minna Beuff

From the early 1970s onwards, Chris Reinecke operated within newly established platforms for political agitation: Büro Olympia, which had emerged from the earlier LIDL-activities, Selbsthilfe Wohnen and its successor Mietersolidarität Düsseldorf. From then on, Reinecke focused exclusively on the design of militant ‘posters’ to be displayed in the windows of their office on Neubrückstrasse. They are made in the style of the ROSTA posters of the Russian poet and artist Mayakovsky, dealing with current socio-political issues that revolve around power relations in the state. Like her Russian example, Reinecke strived for a closely interwoven combination of image and text. Reinecke called for solidarity against the status quo of power, money and property. This visual language is related to the paintings of Jörg Immendorff from that time, which will later be museumised as an example of ‘agitprop’ painting.

Reinecke created Minna Beuff, a strong, blonde woman with pronounced feminine forms. As a kind of superhero, she symbolises the struggle of women for autonomy and against socially established norms. Some drawings depicting Minna Beuff also show her sturdy Buffalo-like shoes. With this clumsy type of shoe, Reinecke wanted to protest against sporting ambitions, something that bothers her even more today, but which was triggered in the early 1970s by the imminent Olympic Games in Munich and the big money that was thrown at them. The sturdy shoes are also appropriate 48-hour footwear for occupations and marches, allowing Minna Beuff to march around the world.

The concerns expressed by Chris Reinecke with regard to housing shortages, transport and power imbalances sound strikingly contemporary.