Poesie der Großstadt: Die Affichisten

The speaking painting

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Affichistes appeared on the scene in Paris with a new and revolutionary artistic image form: the demolition of posters. They took up this expanding advertising medium, which increasingly characterised the cityscape, and its particular aesthetic and, with their captured, random images, formulated a radical contradiction to the dominant abstract painting of the post-war period. On the one hand, they are interested in the act of forcibly appropriating visual material from public space; on the other, they celebrate the principle of chance and show a particular interest in language and typography. However, in their actions they no longer see themselves as committed to an avant-garde agitprop self-image, but rather aim at the visual complexity of contemporary modern means of expression, as they are then also taken up by Pop Art and are still relevant today despite all electronic mediality. The book and exhibition provide a comprehensive overview of the two decades (1948-1968) of activities by this important post-war avant-garde, which emerged particularly in France, and expand the spectrum by looking at the photographic, cinematic and audio works of the most important protagonists such as Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, François Dufrêne, Mimmo Rotella and Wolf Vostell. In addition, their other specific backgrounds, for example in décollage, action or happening, are traced. What remains quite astonishing is how much freshness and radiance many of the works have retained to this day.

Exhibition:
Museum Tinguely, Basel, 22/10/2014 - 11/1/2015
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 5/2 - 25/5/2015