| Art &Technology |
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| - Pop Art - Nouveau Réalisme, Socialist Realism, Magischer Realismus |
Figurative painting, Superrealism, Hyperrealism and Photorealism are not the only ways of dealing with the dialectics of reality and fiction in the field of painting.
Fig.: Daniel Spoerri: Repas Hongrois, 1963
In the October of 1962 theatre critic Pierre Restany in collaboration with the businessman Sidney Janis came up with the influential exhibition "The New Realists". Resany and Janis tried to bring together and present to a wider public the group of European "Nouveau Réalists" as they was called in Europe (Arman, Christo, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Mimmo Rotella, Daniel Spoerri and Jean Tinguely) and their American colleagues Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Stankiewicz and John Chamberlain, who were often called "Neodadaists" in European theory. The third group connected to the first two ones were Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann, who were considered to be "Pop".
After the second world war a number of new realisms emerged with different flavours depending upon the context of their emergence. Following a period of abstract painting in the Soviet Union, Lenin enforced a decision in 1932 to ask artists for a clear reference of their artworks towards the achievements of the socialist society. The preferred topics ranged from paintings of industrial scenes, political leaders and heroes of work. In the German Democratic Republic (DDR) Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Willi Sitte amongst others followed the style of Socialist Realism.
A less politically ambitious style with allusions towards religious and spiritistic content or psychoanalytically relevant topics became popular in Germany as "Magischer Realismus" and in Austria as "Phantastischer Realismus". The German critic Tilman Fichter proposes to talk about "Psychischer Realismus" oder "Kritischer Realismus" as a second instance of realistic painting.
| Nouveau Réalisme | Arman:
Grands dechets bourgeois. Household garbage in glass box, 65,5 x 40 x 8 cm, 1958 |
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| Neodadaism |
Jasper Johns: Painted
Bronze |
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| Phantastic Realism | Ernst Fuchs: The Wedding of the Unicorn. 1952 - 60 |  |
| Magischer Realismus |
Günther Bauer: Flugkarren, oil on canvas, 150 x 130 cm |
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| Socialist Realism | W.
Sitte: Chemiearbeiter am Schaltpult. Acrylic on canvas |
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| Postsocialist Realism | Prof.
Johannes Heisig: Portrait of Chanceller Helmut Schmidt. 120 x 95 cm 1986
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