Radical. Realities.

During the summer months, the Kunsthalle Mannheim is dedicating the largest exhibition in Germany in more than 15 years to Nouveau Réalisme and its international context. Featuring approximately 150 works by artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, Daniel Spoerri, Yves Klein, Christo, Jean Tinguely, Arman, and César, the exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of the art movement that, beginning in the 1960s, turned reality itself into the material of art.

Drawing on significant works from its own collection, Radical. Realities. traces the development of consumer society from the 1950s through the early 1970s, while also exploring the relevance of these artistic positions today. This development did not proceed at one single place or in accordance with a unified style. Instead, comparable questions and artistic approaches emerged simultaneously in different cultural and political contexts. From Paris and London to Milan, Stockholm and Dusseldorf, extending as far as New York, Buenos Aires or Tokyo, artists are looking for progressive possibilities for connecting art and life. Despite their heterogeneity they are united by the attempt to inscribe reality—and with it the conditions of their time—directly into art. The decisive site of this artistic reorientation is the everyday world.

The exhibition Radical. Realities. Nouveau Réalisme and the Art of the 1960s understands Nouveau Réalisme as a central point of departure from which to make these international constellations visible. It is not primarily about the history of a clearly delineated artists’ group. Instead, the focus of the project is on the networks, overlaps and connections which provide an understanding of Nouveau Réalisme less as a closed movement than as a nodal point, centered in Paris, within a widely branching cartography of new realisms.

In dialogue with the Nouveaux Réalistes, the exhibition also presents works by artists such as Jasper Johns, Alina Szapocznikow, Tetsumi Kudo, Chryssa, and Feliza Bursztyn. Their works demonstrate how international and multifaceted the search for new artistic languages of realism was during this period.

At the heart of new art is the city—a place of constant change, shaped by consumerism, advertising, traffic, and an ever increasing pace of life. The streets become the artists´ repository of materials: While the Affichistes tear down posters from walls and make their torn surfaces visible, other artists collect, accumulate, compress or fix objects of everyday life. Dissolved from their original context, these objects become testimonies of their time: They question the perception of things and make the reality of modern consumer society immediately tangible.

In a productive dialogue with Marcel Duchamp, the artists expand the concept of 'objet trouve' as well as the possibilities of language as material. The body becomes a central theme: Klein’s “anthropometries”, César’s “expansions” or Szapocznikow’s assembled sculptures reflect the tension-filled relationship between reality and representation. At the same time, art becomes action and spectacle. The performative destruction of objects—such as Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tirs or Marta Minujín’s Destrucción bridge the gap between art and life. At the same time, they are seen as a political gesture within a changing society.

Through paintings, sculptures, installations, and works on paper, in dialogue with archival documents, photographs, and video recordings of performances and actions, Radical. Realities. allows visitors to rediscover the explosive power of Nouveau Réalisme—and presents art whose questions about consumerism, the media, and reality seem more relevant today than ever before.

Curator: Luisa Heese
Curatorial assistance: Dr. Stefano Agresti