Key decade: late 1950s, early 1960s

Terms: Independent Group, Capitalist Realism, Nouveaux Realisme

1. Nouveaux Realistes (we've met them before) - Paris, ca. 1960
   1. Arman (b. 1928)
   2. Yves Klein
   3. crucial appendage: Pierre Restany, critic and publicity hack
2. The Independent Group - London, ca.1952 - 1960
   1. Eduardo Paolozzi (b. 1924 Edinburgh, Italian parents)
   2. Richard Hamilton (b. 1922 London)
   3. other members include critic Lawrence Alloway, who coined the term "Pop Art"
3. "Capitalist Realism" - Dusseldorf, ca. 1963, with Richter's "Leben mit Pop" (w/ Konrad Lueg)
   1. Gerhard Richter (b. 1932 Dresden, East Germany)
   2. Sigmar Polke (b. 1941 Silesia, now Poland)
   3. other German Pop affiliates: Wolf Vostell (coined "décollage")
4. Other "Pop" inflected realisms:
   1. Britain: David Hockney, Malcolm Morley (Lucian Freud?)
   2. USA "Photo-" or "Super-realism": Philip Pearlstein, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack

Slide List

Arman Madison Avenue 1962
Arman Venu$ 1970
Paolozzi Automobile Head 1954
Paolozzi Head 1957
Paolozzi Psychological Atlas 1947-53 (scrapbook)
Paolozzi I was a rich man's plaything 1947
Hamilton Just What is it That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? 1956 (This is Tomorrow exhibit)
Hamilton $he 1958-61
Hamilton Hommage à Chrysler Corporation 1957
McHale Why I took to the Washers in Luxury Flats 1954
Vostell Coca-Cola 1961 (décollage)
Klein The Void 1958
Polke Chocolate Painting 1964
Polke Moderne Kunst 1968
Polke Bunnies 1966
Richter Sailors 1966
Richter Leben mit Pop c.1963
Richter Alfa Romeo 1965
Richter Woman w/ Umbrella 1964
Richter Color Fields 1973
Richter Garmisch 1981
Richter Athens 1985
Hockney The Splash 1966
Hockney A Bigger Splash 1967
Morley Race Track 1970
Morley New York 1971
Freud Naked Man w/ Friend 1978-80
Freud Large Interior in Paddington 1966
Pearlstein Reclining Nude on Oriental Rug 1968
Close Big Self-Portrait 1967-68
Flack Marilyn 1977
Hamilton My Marilyn 1965

Independent Group

Paolozzi, I was a Rich Man's Plaything, 1947
Hamilton, Just What Makes Today's Homes So Different...So Appealing?, 1956

Both the Italian-British sculptor Paolozzi and the painter Richard Hamilton were drawn to the enormous energy and (corrosive?) visual appeal of American advertising. Paolozzi, interned during the war as an "alien," got his hands on American magazines from GIs; his 1952 showing of these scrapbooks over the epidiascope prompted the founding of the Independent Group, to confront "the modern flood of visual symbols." IG member Lawrence Alloway was the critic who coined the name "Pop Art."

Paolozzi, Head, 1957
Hamilton, "Hommage a Chrysler Corp", 1957
Hamilton, $he, 1958

Paolozzi considered himself a sculptor, Hamilton a painter. How do these objects interrogate the emerging commodity culture associated with American dominance of the economy?

Capitalist Realism

Richter, Leben mit Pop, c.1963
Richter, Alfa Romeo, 1965
Polke, Moderne Kunst, 1968

A group of artists in Dusseldorf mounted an installation of objects in a local department store, installing themselves as well amidst these commodities as a demonstration of "Capitalist Realism." What earlier, state-supported realisms was this "Capitalist Realism" responding to?

Richter, Sailors, 1966
Polke, Bunnies, 1966

Both Richter and Polke respond to the dominance of photography after the war. Richter imbues the photograph with a sense of loss and melancholy; Polke seems more interested in its mode of circulation through culture. What New York Pop artists can be compared to these two modes of viewing the photograph or advertisement?

Nouveaux Realistes

Klein, The Void, 1958
Arman, Madison Avenue, 1962

From opposite sides, Klein and Arman (both dubbed "Nouveaux Realistes" by their appointed critic Pierre Restany), were critiquing the commodity and its role in displacing desire and spirituality onto purchasable goods. Like most during this period, they were not unambivalent in their castigation of American consumer culture.

Other Realisms

Hockney, The Splash, 1966
Freud, Large Interior in Paddington, 1966
Morley, New York, 1971

Whether they identified with West Coast US Pop (Hockney), New York "Superrealism" (Morley), or a resistance to both (Freud), British artists remained interested in figurative art.

Pearlstein, Seated Nude, 1969
Hockney, The Splash, 1966

Close, Phil/Fingerprints II, 1978
Freud, Large Interior in Paddington, 1966

Flack, Marilyn, 1977
Morley, New York, 1971

Various assertive realisms emerged in the US, some eschewing the photograph but interrogating its potentially clinical vision (Pearlstein), and others frankly confessing their fascination with, and reliance on, the medium.