When can the exhibition be visited?

The scheduled event date is Thursday, October 1, 2026, starting at 10 a.m. According to the event information, the exhibition is on view until October 11, 2026.

How much does admission cost?

The regular admission price is 16 euros according to the researched event information.

Which artists are represented?

The mentioned positions include, among others, Arman, César, Yves Klein, Mimmo Rotella, Daniel Spoerri, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jacques de la Villeglé, Alina Szapocznikow, Jasper Johns, Tetsumi Kudo, Chryssa, and Feliza Bursztyn.

What art forms does RADICAL. REAL. showcase?

The exhibition features paintings, sculptures, installations, object art, works on paper, photographs, as well as film and video documents of performances and actions.

Are there educational offerings related to the exhibition?

The exhibition is associated with guided tours, workshops, and other educational offerings. A workstation invites participants to create their own collage images using wood stamps and newspapers.

Where does the exhibition take place?

The exhibition takes place at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Friedrichsplatz 4, 68165 Mannheim.

RADICAL. REAL.: How the Kunsthalle Mannheim makes reality radically newly experienceable

Name: RADICAL. REAL. Nouveau Realism and the Art of the 1960s
Start: 2026-10-01T10:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-10-11T18:00:00+02:00
Location: Kunsthalle Mannheim

When reality itself becomes the material of art

With RADICAL. REAL. Nouveau Realism and the Art of the 1960s, the Kunsthalle Mannheim is dedicating a comprehensive special exhibition to one of the most influential artistic movements of the post-war period. Around 150 works lead into an era where everyday objects, traces of consumption, body images, and media fragments became radical new visual languages.

A global cartography of Nouveau Realism

The exhibition traces the development of Nouveau Realism from the post-war period to the early 1970s. Paris is at the center as the starting point of a movement whose impulses extended far beyond the group initiated by Pierre Restany in 1960. Artists in Europe, Latin America, and the USA searched for forms that did not depict reality but worked with it directly.

Major works by Arman, César, Yves Klein, Mimmo Rotella, Daniel Spoerri, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Jacques de la Villeglé make visible how found objects, poster remnants, metal, bodies, and consumer objects were elevated to the status of autonomous art. Additionally, positions by Alina Szapocznikow, Jasper Johns, Tetsumi Kudo, Chryssa, and Feliza Bursztyn enter into dialogue.

Material, body, and traces of everyday life

The examination of the works unfolds between painting, sculpture, installation, object art, works on paper, photography, and film and video documents. Compression, chance, and intervention shape the atmosphere of the exhibition. Compacted metal bodies, fragmented posters, assemblages, and performative traces transform the museum space into a laboratory of aesthetic experience.

Particularly impactful is the engagement with body and identity. Niki de Saint Phalle's Black Pregnant Nana from 1968 represents a confident image of women and an art that makes societal roles visible and simultaneously overwrites them. Works by Tetsumi Kudo refer to the traumas of modernity and the destructive consequences of war, technology, and environmental change.

Consumer society, Pop Art and present

RADICAL. REAL. also explores the tension-filled relationship between Nouveau Realism and Pop Art. Both art movements reacted to the new world of images of mass media and the growing consumer society but developed different strategies. While Pop Art often worked with the surface of the commodity world, Nouveau Realism relied on real materials, direct interventions, and the poetic enhancement of what was found.

The curation combines art historical context with cultural education. Archive materials, photographs, and documents from actions open a view onto an art that does not decorate but questions social reality. Educational offers such as guided tours, workshops, and workstations invite participants to practically experiment with perception and develop their own visual ideas from text, language, and found materials.

An art experience with contemporary relevance

The exhibition makes palpable how closely art, everyday life, media, and political reality are interconnected. Questions about abundance, environmental destruction, identity, and the power of images retain their urgency today. In the concentrated examination of the works, an art experience arises that acts sensually, intellectually, and socially at the same time.

Conclusion: The 1960s as an open present

Visitors can expect a multifaceted exhibition spanning object art, installation, sculpture, painting, and documented action. RADICAL. REAL. presents the 1960s not as a completed stylistic history but as a living movement of thought. Anyone who wishes to directly experience the aesthetic experience of Nouveau Realism and reconsider the relationship between art and reality should definitely visit this exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim.