The Truth as Attitude exhibition at the musa gallery showcases the work of artists who “pulled back the curtain” on post-WWII Vienna: the Viennese Realists.
- Art as insight into post-war culture and beyond
- Covers a range of media and styles
- Runs Mar 20 – Aug 17, 2025
- Free entry
- See also:
Truth as Attitude
(Hans Escher, People in Front of the Butcher’s Shop, 1977, © Hans and Eva Escher; press photo: Wien Museum)
Post-WWII Vienna was not a city at ease with itself as it simultaneously reckoned with and tried to ignore the recent past.
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.
Given that atmosphere and the events preceding that time, you could understand if artists fled into abstraction or soporific idylls.
But not everyone chose to skirt the realities of the present and ignore the past.
The Truth as Attitude 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.
(Georg Eisler, Confrontation, 1973, © Bildrecht, Wien 2025; press photo: Wien Museum)
The Soldiers’ Reunion set of linocut prints from 1954 kicked off the rise of these Viennese Realists.
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.
A tough critical environment awaited the Realists, though. Not everyone wished to process a disreputable past, for example. And people often associated “realism” with the version projected for propaganda purposes by totalitarian states.
However, the Realists sought a genuine portrayal of the sociopolitical situation. The artistic equivalent of the child observing the emperor in his new clothes.
The artists’ 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.
(Erna Frank, Lying in Bed, 1988, © Bildrecht, Wien 2025; press photo: Wien Museum)
As well as presenting the works of numerous artists, the exhibition also reveals the various artistic approaches applied through the years.
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.
As such, enjoy everything from nudes to street scenes, from pen & ink cityscapes to figurative bronze sculptures…with the meaning of each work largely left to your interpretation.
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy a dose of realism from March 20th to August 17th, 2025. Entrance to the musa exhibitions is free.
If you want to explore post-1950 Vienna more closely, then try the main Wien Museum building on Karlsplatz. Their comprehensive permanent exhibition takes you through a cultural and historical chronology of the city (and it’s also free to view).
The Realists rarely take centre stage in the main museum exhibitions, but do check my listings to see what’s on. That era also gets some treatment in the permanent exhibition at Upper Belvedere in the sections covering the 1920s to 1970s.
How to get to the truth
In today’s world? Good luck with that. But you can reach the exhibition easily enough…
The main Wien Museum musa article has travel tips, but the building lies on the northern side of the giant Rathaus on the edge of the old town.
You can easily reach it on foot from the centre or using the 1, D and 71 trams that meander along the Ring boulevard (get out at Rathausplatz, Burgtheater). The Schottentor and Rathaus subway stations on the U2 line are also very close.
Address: Felderstraße 6-8, 1010 Vienna