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An anarchic current runs through this summer’s programme at the Berlinische Gallery entirely in keeping with its specialist collection dealing in the art of the avant-garde: three artists and three exhibitions are brought together under one roof, and unexpected connections emerge. It is their interesting combination, whether by intention or not, that sheds light upon the historical significance of the avant-garde as well as its continued vitality within the emerging art of today.

The first room features the work of contemporary artist Angela Bulloch who lives and works in Berlin. Her ongoing project ‘Rules Series’ explores the complex systems of rule making within society, comprising a diverse collection of official regulations, signs and standards. The selected texts, de-contextualized instructions for public and private sectors from members of the Italian Mafia to visitors of London’s Downing Street, have been transformed into giant wall paintings for one of the gallery’s main exhibition spaces. This exploration of social control bears particular resonance when juxtaposed alongside other non-related artists within an institutional setting, provoking the spectator to question how their own experience is, in turn, framed and organised by the gallery itself. I had to laugh at the irony of being told off by a stern official for taking photographs of Bulloch’s work without a permit.

These pieces draw heavily on the spirit and aesthetic flair of Modernist avant-garde typography which transform words into a form of imposing imagery in their own right, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in the work and ideas of Lajos Kassak, another feature of this season’s programme. Here, the exhibition focusses on Lajos’s broad creative output as a writer, theorist and visual artist at the forefront of early 20th century Hungarian avant-garde. On display is a private collection from Paris, focusing on his journalistic work within the internationally renown journal MA (Today), which reflects the Expressionist, Dadaist and Contructivist influences of the time. Tucked into a single room there is a wealth of material that will interest specialist fans in particular, including contemporary photographs and documents, as well as pieces by figurehead artists such as Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters and Tristan Tzara.

The third section, however, is this season‘s highlight: 60 years after Lajos, Rainer Fetting, one of Germany’s contemporary figurehead artists, achieved iconic status for channelling a provocative spirit entirely of his own and chronicling Berlin’s turbulent era of change during the 70s and 80s. The collection here does well to convey this sense of progression. Split into four sections spanning four decades, the 40 paintings or so that make up this retrospective depict both personal and collective experience, capturing the ‘new Berlin’ that city dwellers were witnessing from within the old West. There are some rarely shown preparatory drawings which provide interesting background material to his large, intensely colourful canvases, as well as a collection of Fetting’s well known ‘Wall paintings’ which capture Berlin in all its melancholic beauty. Amongst this is a particularly strong room devoted to Fetting’s obsession with the capital’s thriving underground music scene, inspired by his time spent in New York.

Fetting paints rock ‘n’ roll with the truth and sensitivity that Matisse painted jazz, and there is more than a touch of David Hockney to be found in his lively and colourful depiction of gay subculture. Yet there is also something more urgent, more provocative, and less nostalgic in the way he captures alternative ways of life. It is perhaps the presence of another master painter, Van Gogh that remains most apparent in his vivid, expressionist brushstrokes; an idol of his that he regularly parodies in his video work with a nonsensical playfulness reminiscent of the Dadaists (a brilliant collection of whose work, incidentally, can be found directly on the floor above). A former member of the artistic group ‘Die Hungen Wilden’ or ‘The Wild Young Ones’, Fetting shares more than a similar sense of humour with these godfathers of provocation, captured on film throwing paint at the Berlin Wall. Combining this explosive energy with the sensitive observations of an outsider, Fetting’s paintings have nevertheless forged a strong individual style. They speak of raw human emotion and the spirit of a city in a manner unapparent in the Conceptual and Minimalist work of his Berliner contemporaries.

Hidden out of sight from the hordes of tourists congrating at Checkpoint Charlie in Mitte, Berlin’s national museum for modern art, photography and architecture is worth the visit. Highly recommended in particular is Rainer Fetting. Ditch the tour guides this summer and get an alternative education in the capital city by catching the exhibition before it ends in September.