Gerald Kriedner was born in Maxen in 1940. He died in Münnerstadt, Bavaria, in 2018. A teacher and art educator, he exhibited his artwork internationally. His surreal painting “Götterdämmerung” (Twilight of the Gods) shows soap bubbles floating over the Berlin Wall, out of which blood and a rainbow are flowing.
Gerald Kriedner’s Wall painting “Götterdämmerung” (Twilight of the Gods) is surreal and open to interpretation. The first version of 1990 showed a shape resembling buttocks and an anus blowing soap bubbles, some with the faces of historic figures in them. The Berlin Wall was portrayed on the edge of the painting with blood flowing out of it. In 2009 the artist retouched his painting. The shape in the centre now more closely resembles a pair of eyes or breasts. Behind the Wall a dreary East Berlin cityscape can be seen. As well as blood flowing out of the Wall, there is a rainbow, adding a note of optimism.
Kriedner completed training in the GDR both as a craftsman and in art and worked as a teacher and art educator. He later moved to West Germany where he studied art, for a time under Joseph Beuys. He first exhibited his work in 1972 and had further exhibitions in Germany and abroad. He was active in non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Attac. Until 2003 he worked on a series of pieces focusing on walls.