Eva-Maria Schreiter

Eva-Maria Schreiter (1944 in Freital) had a dynamic drawing practice, situated beyond the studio, in infirmaries, kitchens, hostels, the classroom, and the visitor salons of military academies. Intimately engaging the subjects she drew, her art was part sociological documentation, part an opportunity for these groups to reflect upon their social roles.

Schreiter first studied graphic arts under Günther Horlbeck at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden (1966-71), remaining at the institution for another decade as an assistant to Horlbeck (1971-82) and leader of the program’s study in restoration (1976-82). Within the academy’s drawing, painting, and sculpture department, she was one of three female faculty members, out of 27 total. Gender-based marginalization also partly explains why Schreiter remains relatively unpopular today, though her close proximity to official socialist politics is an important second reason. Her technique of directly interacting with her subjects emerged from the socialist doctrine to unite art and society. The resulting works also positively gloss spaces of learning and state infrastructure.

In 1981, Schreiter spent time in the delivery room of Dresden’s medical academy, sketching women at birth, babies taking their first breath, and the bustle of obstetric nurses. Her etching series For Life synthesizes these observations, layering diagrammatic grids and shapes – reminiscent of the hospital tiles and technical equipment – onto graphic drawings of newborns, fetuses, and wombs. The drawings reflect the recently implemented political measures to streamline midwifery education, improve prenatal care, and sink infant and mother mortality rates. Schreiter is amongst a unique demographic of East German artists with ambivalent legacies, the likes of Lea Grundig and Eva Schulze-Knabe, who as women within a patriarchal society managed to fashion state-sanctioned careers and advance gender-progressive changes along the way.

text: Tobias Rosen