Whether early Pop artists, trailblazers of Street Art, or protagonists of a “natural poetry” of reality: in the 1950s, the “Affichistes” came forward with a complete new concept of the panel painting. On their rambles through the streets of postwar Paris, they collected fragments of ubiquitous, overlayered, often weathered and tattered posters and elevated the world of everyday urban life itself to the status of a painting. Their access to reality, as subversive as it was poetic, made them pioneers of a “New Realism”. The SCHIRN acknowledges the art of the “Affichistes” with an extensive exhibition, shining a light on its special role within the avant-garde of the 1950s and1960s. A total of 150 exhibits will present the entire spectrum of the art of tearing off posters, from small fragments to enormous large formats, from abstract color formations to icons of Pop culture – supplemented by photographic, cinematic, and poetic experiments by the participating artists: François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, as well as Mimmo Rotella and Wolf Vostell. 

Whether early Pop artists, trailblazers of Street Art, or protagonists of a “natural poetry” of reality: in the 1950s, the “Affichistes” came forward with a complete new concept of the panel painting. On their rambles through the streets of postwar Paris, they collected fragments of ubiquitous, overlayered, often weathered and tattered posters and elevated the world of everyday urban life itself to the status of a painting. Their access to reality, as subversive as it was poetic, made them pioneers of a “New Realism”. Represented artists: François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, as well as Mimmo Rotella and Wolf Vostell.