{"id":81183,"date":"2025-03-13T11:19:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T10:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=81183"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T08:06:11","slug":"viennese-realism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/viennese-realism\/","title":{"rendered":"Viennese Realism after 1950"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennareslistssmall1.jpg\" alt=\"Exhibition poster on a pillar\" class=\"wp-image-81416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennareslistssmall1.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennareslistssmall1-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The <em>Truth as Attitude<\/em> exhibition at the musa gallery showcases the work of artists who &#8220;pulled back the curtain&#8221; on post-WWII Vienna: the Viennese Realists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Art as insight into post-war culture and beyond<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Covers a range of media and styles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs Mar 20 &#8211; Aug 17, 2025<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Free entry<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/musa\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"22139\">musa overview<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/#modernart\">Exhibitions of modern art<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Truth as Attitude<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"299\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism1.jpg\" alt=\"Painting of a view from a butchers window\" class=\"wp-image-81186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism1-300x179.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Hans Escher, <em>People in Front of the Butcher&#8217;s Shop<\/em>, 1977, \u00a9 Hans and Eva Escher; press photo: Wien Museum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Post-WWII Vienna was not a city at ease with itself as it simultaneously reckoned with and tried to ignore the recent past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each street corner carried scars and memories of the devastation wreaked on communities and culture by war and oppression, with a swastika-shaped shadow hanging over everything. A city in part denial and still suffering economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given that atmosphere and the events preceding that time, you could understand if artists fled into abstraction or soporific idylls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But not everyone chose to skirt the realities of the present and ignore the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Truth as Attitude<\/em> exhibition at musa highlights one artistic movement that sought both to reflect on-the-ground reality and tackle the brown-shirted elephant in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism2.jpg\" alt=\"Painting of a protest demo\" class=\"wp-image-81187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism2.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism2-300x261.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Georg Eisler, <em>Confrontation<\/em>, 1973, \u00a9 Bildrecht, Wien 2025; press photo: Wien Museum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Soldiers&#8217; Reunion<\/em> set of linocut prints from 1954 kicked off the rise of these Viennese Realists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That art pointed a critical finger at, for example, the rehabilitation of former Nazis or proposals for a European army. The prints appear in the exhibition, and you can feel the frustration in the stark images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A tough critical environment awaited the Realists, though. Not everyone wished to process a disreputable past, for example. And people often associated &#8220;realism&#8221; with the version projected for propaganda purposes by totalitarian states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the Realists sought a genuine portrayal of the sociopolitical situation. The artistic equivalent of the child observing the emperor in his new clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The artists&#8217; realism, then, refers to an attitude, rather than a style. Later, its proponents moved beyond WWII legacies to tackle other aspects of life, society, and the human condition.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism3.jpg\" alt=\"Bronze statue of an overweight person lying on a bed\" class=\"wp-image-81188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism3.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/viennarealism3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Erna Frank, <em>Lying in Bed<\/em>, 1988, \u00a9 Bildrecht, Wien 2025; press photo: Wien Museum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As well as presenting the works of numerous artists, the exhibition also reveals the various artistic approaches applied through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You see works in different media, layered with different levels and targets of social commentary, and drawing on different styles and motifs to make the desired point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, enjoy everything from nudes to street scenes, from pen &amp; ink cityscapes to figurative bronze sculptures&#8230;with the meaning of each work largely left to your interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tickets\">Dates, tickets &amp; tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy a dose of realism from March 20th to August 17th, 2025. Entrance to the musa exhibitions is free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to explore post-1950 Vienna more closely, then try the main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/wien-museum-karlsplatz\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"66174\">Wien Museum building<\/a> on Karlsplatz. Their comprehensive permanent exhibition takes you through a cultural and historical chronology of the city (and it&#8217;s also free to view).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Realists rarely take centre stage in the main museum exhibitions, but do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"37363\">check my listings<\/a> to see what&#8217;s on. That era also gets some treatment in the permanent exhibition at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/belvedere-sites\/upper-belvedere-palace\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3521\">Upper Belvedere<\/a> in the sections covering the 1920s to 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to the truth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In today&#8217;s world? Good luck with that. But you can reach the exhibition easily enough&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/musa\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"22139\">Wien Museum musa<\/a> article has travel tips, but the building lies on the northern side of the giant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/rathaus-2\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"267\">Rathaus<\/a> on the edge of the old town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can easily reach it on foot from the centre or using the 1, D and 71 trams that meander along the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/ring\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1546\">Ring boulevard<\/a> (get out at Rathausplatz, Burgtheater). The Schottentor and Rathaus subway stations on the U2 line are also very close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Felderstra\u00dfe 6-8, 1010 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1CvFy08QgKnm1x4rkMf89o2bjRoLw78on\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An exhibition at musa showcases those artists who &#8220;pulled back the curtain&#8221; on post-WWII Vienna: the Viennese Realists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-81183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-museums","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81183"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85170,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81183\/revisions\/85170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}