Every four years, East Germany’s Ministry of Culture and Artists’ Union hosted a National Art Exhibition in Dresden. From 1946 to 1987-88, ten National Art Exhibitions took place in Dresden, presenting an official selection of artistic works.

This film documents the ninth Dresden exhibition, held in 1982-83, which was visited by over one million people and represented over 1,500 artists, including well-known painters like Werner Tübke, Harald Metzkes, Albrecht Gehse and Willi Sitte. This film shows important works that were on display at this edition of the exhibition.

The East German DEFA Studio for Documentary Film also covered several of the other GDR National Art Exhibitions, in films including:

• Lebensnahe Kunst (3rd German Art Exhibition: Art Drawn from Life, 1953, dir. Hanna Emuth, 14 min.)
• V. Deutsche Kunstausstellung (5th German Art Exhibition, 1963, dir. Max Jaap, 25 min.)
• VI. Deutsche Kunstausstellung Dresden (6th German Art Exhibition in Dresden, 1968, dir. Karlheinz Mund, 29 min.)
• Handschriften-Dialoge über Kunst (7th Art Exhibition: Personal Styles - Dialogs about Art, 1973, dir. Wolfgang Bartsch, 27 min.)
• Positionen – Begegnungen in der VII. Kunstaustellung der DDR (Positions: Encounters at the 7th Art Exhibition, 1978, dir. Wolfgang Bartsch, 29 min.)
• Die X. (The Tenth Art Exibition, 1988, dir. Alfons Machalz, 21 min.)
• A propos X. (1988, dir. Joachim Hellwig, 33 min.)