New Art for a New Era

From the postwar period through the early 1970s, many artists in Europe, Latin America, and the United States explored the potential of found objects as artistic material. Through their direct engagement with reality, they developed new, often radical forms of expression that critically addressed issues such as consumer society and environmental destruction. The French movement Nouveau Réalisme, whose first manifesto was published in April 1960, stands at the center of these international trends. The exhibition RADICAL. REALITIES. Nouveau Réalisme and the Art of the 1960s presents works by representatives of Nouveau Réalisme such as Arman, César, Christo, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Mimmo Rotella, Niki de Saint Phalle, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and Jacques de la Villeglé, alongside international artists working in similar ways, such as Feliza Bursztyn, Chryssa, Jasper Johns, Tetsumi Kudo, and Alina Szapocznikow. Around 150 exhibits will be on display at the Kunsthalle Mannheim through October 11.

At the heart of these artworks lies the modern metropolis, with its consumerism, advertising, rapid change, and ever-faster urban traffic. The streets—reality itself—become the artists’ raw material, as they place found objects in new contexts or elevate torn-down posters to the status of an artistic ideal of beauty. The sublime and the beautiful, as understood in the general conception of art, were to be replaced by standards appropriate to contemporary life. Nouveau Réalisme builds on earlier art movements such as Dadaism and marked the beginning of new art movements such as object art and action art. The Mannheim exhibition also examines in detail the complex relationship between Nouveau Réalisme and Pop Art, a relationship characterized by both connections and contrasts.