European Realities
Realismusbewegungen der 1920er und 1930er Jahre in Europa
The exhibition is the first to be devoted to the various realist movements that were visible almost everywhere in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. It tells of poverty and misery, of economic boom and cultural prosperity, of scientific and technical progress, of the big city and nightlife, of emancipation and diversity. Never before has this artistic period been presented on such a large scale.
The exhibition brings together artists from northern, central, south-eastern, southern and western Europe, presenting artistic networks that transcend national borders. It builds on Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub’s eponymous presentation of New Objectivity in 1925, which, after Mannheim and Dresden, was also shown at today’s Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz in Chemnitz. European Realities combines the local tradition with pan-European realist tendencies. The realism of the 1920s and 1930s not only has many names, such as Nuovo Realismo, Realismo mágico, Pittura metafisica, Novecento, Neue Sachlichkeit, Neoclassicism, Magical Realism, Neorealisme, Nové realismy and many more. It is also rooted in different countries and has many faces. With some 300 works coming from 20 countries, the exhibition not only presents a European panorama, but also shows how artistic approaches spread and develop through the transfer and migration of ideas.
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