Lecture: Rainer Fuchs

Art, consumption and commerce – how much everyday life is in pop art? On December 10, 2026, Rainer Fuchs at the HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark in Graz will dedicate himself to an art movement that fundamentally changed the relationship between art and society.

“Pop art looks into the world” – with this statement, Roy Lichtenstein captured a central thought of pop art. Instead of distancing itself from visible reality like abstract painting, pop art artists incorporated motifs from advertising, mass media, and consumer culture. Everyday objects and popular images became subjects of art.

However, pop art was not just an observer of this commercialized world. As highly sought-after gallery and collector art, it became part of the art market and thus the consumer culture that it addressed in its works.

Rainer Fuchs highlights this exciting interplay using significant pop art collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna (mumok). The collection history surrounding Peter and Irene Ludwig shows how closely artistic developments, private collector interests, and museum presentations are connected.

The lecture also focuses on the past and present perception of pop art. It addresses the question of how an art form that engaged intensely with its present is still viewed and interpreted today.

Arriving by public transport, tram lines 1 & 7, as well as bus lines 30, 31 & 39, stop: Oper/Kaiser-Josef-Platz