When can the exhibition RADICAL. REAL. be visited?

The exhibition is on view from July 3 to October 11, 2026, at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. The specified event date is October 2, 2026, starting at 10 AM.

What is the admission price for the exhibition?

The researched admission price is 16 Euro.

Which artists are represented?

Among the mentioned positions are 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 includes paintings, sculptures, installations, and works on paper, as well as archival material, photographs, and film and video documents of performances and actions.

Where does the exhibition take place?

RADICAL. REAL. takes place at the Kunsthalle Mannheim at Friedrichsplatz 4, 68165 Mannheim.

Is there a accompanying program or guided tours?

The official exhibition page will publish program points and special events. Specific dates for guided tours should be checked there before visiting.

RADICAL. REAL.: How the Kunsthalle Mannheim Radically Discovers Reality Anew

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

RADICAL. REAL.: When Reality Itself Became Art Material

The Kunsthalle Mannheim is dedicating an outstanding special exhibition to Nouveau Realism and its international context. From July 3 to October 11, 2026, a comprehensive panorama of 1960s art unfolds – with around 150 works that transform everyday objects, traces of consumption, body images, and media fragments into radical new visual languages.

A Global Cartography of Nouveau Realism

At the center of the exhibition is an art movement that engaged directly with reality since the post-war period. Starting from Paris and the group initiated in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany, the curation traces the development of Nouveau Realism into the early 1970s. The view extends well beyond France to Europe, the USA, and Latin America.

The exhibition understands Nouveau Realism not as a closed stylistic history but as an international artistic phenomenon. Questions of body and identity, consumer society, industry, media, and environmental destruction intertwine into an art history whose social relevance extends into the present.

Objects, Traces, and New Visual Languages

The aesthetic experience of this exhibition arises from the direct encounter with the found, used, and overlooked. Paintings, sculptures, installations, and works on paper engage in a lively dialogue with archival material, photographs, as well as film and video documents of performances and actions. Materiality becomes visible, surface transforms into memory, and the exhibition space becomes a stage of a dynamic era.

Defining positions include Arman, César, Yves Klein, Mimmo Rotella, Daniel Spoerri, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Jacques de la Villeglé. Additionally, the Kunsthalle presents works by artists such as Alina Szapocznikow, Jasper Johns, Tetsumi Kudo, Chryssa, and Feliza Bursztyn. This creates a multifaceted view of related but not identical responses to reality.

Between Consumer Critique and Sensuous Material Poetry

The contemplation of the works leads to a time when the boundaries between art and everyday life were renegotiated. Industrial materials, urban found objects, torn posters, and traces of consumption acquire their own presence. The exhibition makes it tangible how from the seemingly banal, a concentrated form of contemporary diagnosis can emerge.

Particularly impressive is the dialogue between works from the collection of the Kunsthalle Mannheim and international loans. Color, form, light, and material create a tense exhibition atmosphere, in which art historical analysis and immediate artistic experience intertwine. The presentation also opens up pathways for cultural education: it invites one to sharpen perception and question one's own conception of what art can be.

Nouveau Realism and Pop Art in Comparison

Another focus lies on the relationship between Nouveau Realism and Pop Art. Both movements reacted to the imagery of the modern consumer society but developed different strategies in dealing with media, objects, and reality. The exhibition makes both commonalities and the crucial differences in their aesthetic and social attitudes visible.

Conclusion: An Exhibition that Changes the View on the Present

RADICAL. REAL. promises an intense encounter with works that navigate between material, memory, consumer critique, and social observation. Those who wish to experience the energy of the 1960s, the material poetry of Nouveau Realism, and the unique atmosphere of the Kunsthalle Mannheim directly should visit this exhibition live. Only in front of the originals does the full aesthetic experience of this radical art of the real unfold.