Spirits is the last in a series of exhibitions realised by the collaborative European art network l’Internationale and covers the 30-year period (1956-1986) in which the animosity between the United States and Soviet Union dominated global politics.

Western Europe of course belonged to the American camp, and this became as manifest in art as it did in other fields. With the Doomsday Clock at five minutes to midnight, any bonds that may have existed between artists from east and west were severed. Spirits is an attempt to correct that historical disconnection by uniting contemporary art from the Low Countries with that produced in other parts of the world.

M HKA’s exhibition is divided into six sections, each built up around one so-called “spirit of internationalism”, with titles like “The Concrete”, “The Universal” and “The Engaged”. These categories were invented to group artists thematically and stylistically, but they also give the exhibition an air of conceptual density. If you prefer practice to theory, you can forget about the “spirits” and just wander through the museum, discovering the many interesting pieces in a more spontaneous manner.

It is likely that Andy Warhol’s pop art portrait of Chairman Mao (pictured) will immediately draw your attention, but there are other gems in the collection. A neon light installation by Warhol’s countryman Dan Flavin poses a relevant question about the meaning of space, and works by renowned German painters like Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer are highlights.

But the starting point for Spirits is the Benelux, and the M HKA fittingly puts several local artists in the spotlight. Paul Van Hoeydonck, who recently enjoyed a solo show in Drongenbos’ FeliXart Museum, is known as the only artist whose work made it to the moon. His aluminium statuette “Fallen Astronaut” was left behind by the crew of Apollo 15 to commemorate the astronauts who died in the space race between the US and the USSR.

Marcel Broodthaers, meanwhile, examined the power of language in his literate works, laying bare the core of ideological thinking. The importance of words is also a key theme in the work of Paul de Vree: “Hysteria Makes History” is a clear critique of mass media in the early 1970s.

In juxtaposition with work from other countries, it becomes clear that local artists adopted many of the sensibilities of the cold war era in a unique – often openly critical – way. At the same time, the artistic tendencies present in other countries, especially the United States, can be discerned in the works of these artists as well. By reflecting on both similarities and differences between countries and across continents, the exhibition conjures up exactly what it promises: the spirit of internationalism.

Until 6 May

M HKA, Leuvenstraat 32, Antwerp

www.muhka.be