East of Eden

Photorealist painting, as it unfolded from the end of the 1960s in the USA and then in Western Europe, has been interpreting the relationship between photography and painting, and also its relationship to the art market, to a self-definition by means of consumption, and to everyday life under capitalism in general. Photorealism is not merely a genre of painting that invites competition with photographic depiction, but a portrait of welfare society, and sometimes an enlarged image of the tiny lines on its face. In the Central-Eastern European region, where the political and economic systems were fundamentally different from the West, where the art market was barely known and where, at the same time, the legacy of Socialist Realism remained a burden, photorealism is analysed completely differently.
The exhibition ‘East of Eden’ addressed the recent past of Central-Eastern European photorealist painting against the backdrop of Western photorealism, while the present publication attempts to sketch out its context.

Artists in the show and featured in the catalogue include Robert Bechtle, William Beckman, France Berko Berčič, Bernáth(y) Sándor, Milan Bočkay, Corneliu Brudascu, John Clem Clarke, Chuck Close, Robert Cottingham, Csernus Tibor, Milutin Dragojlović, Don Eddy, Richard Estes, Halina Eysymont, Jadranka Fatur, Fehér László, Julián Filo, Gérard Gasiorowski, Franz Gertsch, Ralph Goings, Ion Grigorescu, Tadeusz Grzegorczyk, Jean Olivier Hucleux, Kelemen Károly, Konrad Klapheck, Kocsis Imre, Łukasz Korolkiewicz, Ewa Kuryluk, Lakner László, Matei Lăzărescu, Richard McLean, Méhes László, Méhes Lóránt, Franc Mesarič, Jacques Monory, Malcolm Morley, Lowell Nesbitt, Nyári István, Theodor Pištěk, Sigmar Polke, Stephen Posen, Gerhard Richter, Veronika Rónaiová, James Rosenquist, Mimmo Rotella, Andrzej Sadowski, John Salt, Ben Schonzeit, Paul Staiger, Andrzej Strumiłło, Andrzej Szumigaj, Andrzej Tryzno and Gerd Winner.

Language: Hungarian, English