For a long time, Claus was artistically isolated and politically suspect in the GDR. He lived as a recluse in Annaberg, and from 1993 in Chemnitz. And yet his workshop had been a centre of gravity for European intellectual forces since the 1950s. Despite the bans, he sent his work to international exhibitions, had close connections to protagonists of concrete poetry in Western and Eastern Europe and was an exemplary authority for many independent artists in the GDR. Werner Schmidt had already purchased works by Claus for the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett at a time when the artist was still being ignored by the GDR institutions.
After 1990, his work was shown many times internationally and Claus had the opportunity to realise expansive sound and material installations. His home town of Annaberg made him an honorary citizen. After his death, the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz established the Carlfriedrich Claus Archive, which processes and preserves his estate, his library and his thousands of pieces of correspondence.
From 3 March to 3 June 2012, the Leonhardi Museum presented the exhibition "Written in Night Sea" by Carlfriedrich Claus. It was organised in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste Berlin and the Carlfriedrich Claus Archive of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and was put together by Brigitta Milde (Chemnitz) and Matthias Flügge (Berlin). in 2011 it was shown at the Berlin Academy of Arts and the Kunsthaus Zug (Switzerland).
At the centre of the exhibition are the work complexes of the drawn "Sprachblätter", the photographs belonging to the early work and the main print work "Aurora", which Rudolf Mayer published in 1976 with Verlag der Kunst in Dresden.
A large-format magazine has been published to accompany the exhibition, including a selection of the photographs for the first time.
Catalogue
A large-format magazine was published to accompany the exhibition.