Führung: Hyper Real

At the end of the 1960s in the USA a group of painters stepped out of the shadows of Abstract Expressionism and turned towards the tradition of painterly realism but, however, in doing so they also exaggerated the illusionism that had been handed down from the 1920s and 1930s. These painters often used the photographic image as a verbatim model but could ‘correct’ the photographs as Chuck Close did in his portraits by placing different photos next to each other in order to give each segment of the picture its own focal point and, in a complex work process, turning photography into painting. Starting from the MUMOK’s extensive collection of 40 works, the exhibition places the museum’s own holdings in a context of realisms and investigates the concepts behind a painting genre that is determined by the subject matter of the city, streets, automobiles and the American way of life. Time and again the Photorealists emphasised the importance of Pop Art some of which is shown at the start of the exhibition before the presentation of the main protagonists such as Richard Estes, Ralph Goings or Don Eddy.

Born in the USA: Contemporary-, Eye- and Ear Witness
of the American Way of Life
We normally understand ‘The American Way of Life’ as referring to autos with gleaming chrome, highways, and fast food. In an exhibition dialogue with John Harter who grew up in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s, Christiana Wustinger thematizes the other side: the civil rights movement, student revolts, and the Vietnam War.