The second half of the twentieth century was for art and above all for artistic painting a period of enormous and fundamental changes. The early 60s’ marked a radical change of discourse.

Under the title “New Realism. 1957-62. Strategies of the object, between readymade and entertainment” the Reina Sofia seeks to examine this key period in contemporary art.

The exhibition begins with the completion of modernity and ends with the cusp of postmodernism. It traces the last stage of the hegemony of abstract painting and pop art while focusing neither on abstract painting nor pop, rather on the process taking place as these movements changed.

According to its curator, Julia Robinson, the exhibition seeks to illuminate a turning point in the art of the second half of the twentieth century – the breaking point in the post-war period, which created conditions conducive to the artistic melange the sixties were known for. Although this decade has been classified with terms such as Pop, Fluxus, minimalism and conceptual art, this brief span of time generated many movements, and none can encompass all of the era’s artistic currents.

The exhibition includes works by artists including George Brecht, Marcel Duchamp, François Dufrêne, Gallizio, Raymond Hains, Allan Kaprow, Yves Klein, Roy Lichtenstein, Piero Manzoni, Jean-Pierre Mirouz, and Robert Rauschenberg, among others.  This exhibit reasserts the relevance these works, and charts the creative path of European and American artists with complementary paths.

Klein defined his project as “specialization” of pure artistic energy, calling it “immaterial.” At the same time, Allan Kaprow and George Brecht worked on the act of painting in relation to actual time and space, gradually transcending painting and beginning to open the way to the happening, as the “event” began to rein.

If you love contemporary art, take advantage of your stay in apartments in Madrid and explore the Reina Sofia Museum until 4 October, where work by these artists will be united in a single exhibition.