Poesie der GroßstadtDie Affichisten

In the 1940s and 1950s the affichistes appeared on the scene in Paris with a new and revolutionary pictorial form: the torn-down poster. They take up this expanding advertising medium, which increasingly shaped the appearance of the city, along with its particular aesthetic, and with their captured, accidental images they formulate a radical contradiction of the dominant abstract painting of the post-war period. Their interest lies on the one hand in the act of forcibly appropriating visual material from public space; on the other hand they celebrate the principle of chance and show a particular interest in language and typography. In their actions, however, they no longer see themselves as committed to an avant-garde agitprop self-image, but aim rather at the visual complexity of contemporary modern means of expression, such as were then also taken up by Pop Art and remain relevant today despite all electronic mediality. Book and exhibition offer a comprehensive view of the two decades (1948–1968) of activity of this important post-war avant-garde, which emerged above all in France, and broaden the spectrum with a look at the photographic, filmic and auditory works of its most important protagonists, such as Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, François Dufrêne, Mimmo Rotella and Wolf Vostell. Their further specific background in décollage, action or happening is also 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