The BBK Gallery at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum was the venue for the first major retrospective in Europe featuring 68 flagship works by Hyperrealist painters, drawn from their output from the early days to the present time.

This, the first major European retrospective dedicated to the Hyperrealist movement, features 68 works from a number of collections. The exhibition included works by many of the leading names associated with the movement, which dated from the movement’s beginnings in the United States in the 1960s through to its subsequent international development, which continues to the present day. 34 artists were included in the show, from the first generation of US painters (including John Baeder, Tom Blackwell, Chuck Close, Don Eddy, Richard Estes and Ralph Goings) to a number of younger artists at work today, including Ben Johnson and others.

Organised by the Institut für Kulturaustausch (Institute for Cultural Exchange) in Tübingen, Germany, and curated by Institute director Otto Letze, the exhibition was premiered at the Tübingen Kunsthalle, subsequently travelling to a number of European museums, including Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.