The roots of the Breakthrough Art Organization --- and the inaugural project celebrating 20 years of German Unification -- lie in Berlin in the early 1990s. There, Jeff Thinnes, who later founded Breakthrough, met Inge Schmidt, a painter who had emigrated from East Germany in 1984. Inge had created, in December 1989, a series of semi-abstract paintings around the fall of the Berlin Wall. Captivated by her impactful images, Jeff, who was then the deputy director of Aspen Institute Berlin, arranged to meet her. In their first conversation, she offered deep insights into the rationale and risks of being a dissident artist in former East Germany. Inge also described the challenges she faced post-reunification, which involved learning to survive in an unfamiliar, highly competitive, market-oriented system.
On the occasion of the 20-year anniversary of German unification, Breakthrough Art Organization hopes to instill in others a deeper appreciation of the benefits, responsibilities and challenges inherent in “freedom,” most particularly freedom of expression. We also hope that this project will inspire others to consider art as one of the “islands of support” that our Breakthrough artists from former East Germany have often described: providing a safe haven, a place of shelter from the storm, a place where one can gather both personal and creative strength – and then move on.