20.03.2025 – 17.08.2025
The Viennese Realists formed an important counter-movement to the dominant art styles of the post-war period. The core group – Georg Eisler, Hans Escher, Alfred Hrdlicka, Fritz Martinz, Rudolf Schönwald and Rudolf Schwaiger – came together in 1954. With the important graphic cycle ‘Soldiers’ Reunion’, they attempted to come to terms with National Socialism much earlier than in other countries. The realists became noticeable in exhibitions from 1960 onwards. Art critics reacted with dismay. They were accused of being close to the propagandistic ‘socialist realism’ of the Stalin era, as well as the realism of the Nazi dictatorship. Yet, their concept of realism was completely different. The group’s focus was not on the depiction of a perceived reality, but on the reality of the political and social situation itself. Existentialism was the godfather of this realism, which propagated nothing less than a new humanistic image of man. This approach was not only formative for the core group of Viennese realists, it also manifested itself in later tendencies, which also appear in ‘Reality as an Attitude’.
Reality as an attitude – Viennese realism after 1950
20.03.2025 – 17.08.2025
Wien Museum MUSA
Felderstraße 6-8
1010 Vienna
www.wienmuseum.at
