From 1955 onwards, the makers of each documenta sought to offer insights into current trends in art and to document the spirit of their particular time. The exhibition and catalogue Documenta – Politics and Art (2021) set out to focus on the history of documenta in the context of the political, cultural and socio-historical development of the Federal Republic of Germany in the second half of the twentieth century. They thereby illuminated a relationship of mutual dependence between art and history. Time and time again, this major international exhibition was a place where West Germany‘s perception of itself was negotiated. From the very beginning, progressive and regressive political currents were active there side by side.
My contribution to this exhibition catalogue is a short essay about the financial sources of the early documenta exhibitions: their public fundings, their attempts to complement and expand these by means of what would later become sponsoring and merchandising, and the complex entanglements that existed between their organizers and the emerging art market.