Dates
May 1 – Jul 26, 2026
ChertLüdde is pleased to present Mail Message from My Studio, an exhibition by Robert Rehfeldt. More than twenty years after his death, ChertLüdde dedicates a comprehensive survey to Robert Rehfeldt, focusing on two fundamental dimensions of his artistic research: his deep-rooted connection to the city of East Berlin and his expansive international network forged through the Mail Art circuit. Bringing together works across painting and diverse graphic techniques, the exhibition highlights Rehfeldt's pivotal role within his own generation and underscores his lasting influence on those that followed. The exhibition is accompanied by a newly commissioned academic paper by art historian Christopher Williams-Wynn. The exhibition gathers works from the Robert Rehfeldt Estate, the Mail Art Archive of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and Robert Rehfeldt, the ifa art collection and the collection of Lutz Wohlrab. This exhibition is presented in relation to the exhibition series Making Public: The Work and Legacy of the GDR's Centre for Art Exhibitions. Born in 1931 in what is today Stargard Szczeciński, Robert Rehfeldt (1931, Stargard – 1993, Berlin, Germany) spent most of World War Two with foster carers in Austria. He moved to the Soviet Occupation Zone in Berlin with his mother in 1946, before studying at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in West Berlin between 1948 and 1953. After living in Berlin-Mitte, he moved to Pankow in the northeast of the divided city, a location that became his base of operations for 40 years. While maintaining his studio practice, he became one of the most internationally-connected artists in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), corresponding with hundreds of artists from the early 1970s until he passed away in 1993. Rehfeldt entered the mail art network in the early 1970s. This community of artists exchanged works—often postcards, photocopies, rubber-stamp impressions, and small objects—through the postal system. By the middle of the decade, he collaborated at a distance with Horacio Zabala, whose exchanges with Robert Rehfeldt provide further insight into the development and context of his practice within the exhibition. Born in 1943 in Argentina, Zabala initially trained as an architect. While still living in Buenos Aires, he developed a conceptualist practice that grappled with the possible role of art amidst extreme political repression. After a military coup in 1976, he left the country and remained in Europe for over 20 years. His mail art will also be on view. Maintaining open channels of communication was vital for Rehfeldt, as was his studio practice. Over the course of the 1980s, he produced a number of paintings that show how he worked within and between painterly idioms. Through complex layers of mediation, he found ways to address aspects of wider social conditions in the GDR. Portrait of Robert Rehfeldt riding his bike, Berlin, 1981. Photo by Gerd Börner, Courtesy of the Artist & ChertLüdde, Berlin