Various movements and events such as Pop Art in the USA, a renewed interest in New Objectivity and Surrealism, the increasing politicisation of society and the student revolts meant that new perspectives on the theme of “reality” were opened up in the 1970s.
Now, for the first time, Aufbruch Realismus investigates the diversity of forms and facets of the realism of that time: in addition to international positions, this comprehensive retrospective exhibition focuses in particular on artists from Germany but also features an entire succession of artists who were never discovered or who have been largely forgotten.

Artists: 
Hermann Albert, Heiner Altmeppen, Axel Arndt, Bettina von Arnim, Dieter Asmus, Ulrich Baehr, Moritz Baumgartl, Manfred Bluth, Gisela Breitling, Peter Collien, Alex Colville, Robert Cottingham, Christa Dichgans, Hans-Jürgen Diehl, Margarete Dreher, Peter Dreher, Harald Duwe, Don Eddy, Otto Engbarth, Hildegard Fuhrer, Arwed D. Gorella, Johannes Grützke, Ulrich Hachulla, Almut Heise, Geoffrey Hendricks, JeanOlivier Hucleux, Jörg Immendorff, Howard Kanovitz, Konrad Klapheck, Peter Klasen, Matthias Koeppel, Dieter Kraemer, Klaus Langkafel, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Rune Mields, Maina-Miriam Munsky, Peter Nagel, Lowell Nesbitt, Philip Pearlstein, Wolfgang Petrick, Uwe Pfeifer, Hans Peter Reuter, Gerhard Richter, Franz Sequenc, Peter Sorge, Volker Stelzmann, Norbert Stockhus, Jan Peter Tripp, Werner Tübke, Dietmar Ullrich, Hermann Waldenburg, Jürgen Waller, Ben Willikens, Lambert Maria Wintersberger, Paul Wunderlich, Sigi Zahn and Karlheinz Ziegler