Gerhard Altenbourg is regarded as one of the most important artists in the German Democratic Republic, as his art could not be restricted by a Socialist Realism.
Gerhard Altenbourg already experienced the constrictions of eastern German cultural politics while he attended the Weimar University of Architecture and Fine Arts, as it did not take long before he was exmatriculated for an "amoral choice of motifs", and even the years after were affected by restrictions. But yet, his prints, paintings and sculptures were received, and that was not only in the GDR, but also in Western Germany. Gerhard Altenbourg's individual, poetic style between a phantastic realism and abstraction became a prime example of avant-garde art in Eastern Germany.
Works by Gerhard Altenbourg have been on display in numerous international exhibitions and can be found in many public collections, such as the Harvard University Art Museum in Cambridge, the Kolumba Kunstmuseum in Cologne or the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.