Even more so than Pop Art, photorealist painting and sculpture effectively represents the typically American element in Western postwar art.

While subsequently exerting a broad influence throughout the international art scene, this element was at the same time heavily criticised immediately after its emergence, precisely from a European perspective. This publication places American visual worlds around 1970 in a comprehensive cultural and art historical context.

The exhibition features the work of artists as diverse as Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Martha Rosler, Jeff Wall, Christo, and Thomas Demand among many others.

This thoroughly illustrated ‘reader’ was published in conjunction with the exhibition Hyper Real: Art and America around 1970 at Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, 13 March – 19 June 2011.

English and German text.