The artists involved belonged to the Pop art movement wich emerged in the late 50's and early 60's. An iconic artist of the movement was the famous Andy Warhol who started the movement with a few other artists like Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi. The exhibition was on for 3 months in a museum in madrid. It is the curator of the museum who was involved in the creative process.
I found the exhibtion well done because it doesn't only show us what we already know about pop art like portraits of Marilyn Monroe or beans cans but it shows us pop art that the public doesn't know. I really liked the work with the word "EAT" composed of light bulbs. As I really saw the exhibtion, I can say that this work is much worth it in real as it composed of bulbs and in a virtual visit the light is less striking. I don't know why this work stayed in my memory, but we can surely say it is pop art as it suggests the american way of life with the bulbs that makes us think of the typicall miror in wich actors look at themselves before playing their role in Hollywood and the word "EAT" in capital letters that can suggest the exagerated production and consumption of food in the U.S.. I could criticize the fact that in the virtual visit we can't see the titles of the works, their artists, their date and it's a pitty because it is important to know the context and the credits. I chose the painting "Retroactive II" from Robert Schaunenberg as it is one of the works that I still remember and I think the artist's message is shared in a very subtle way.
Retroactive II, Robert Schaunenberg, 1964, 213x152cm
This image is a collage from the year 1964, it has a pretty big size. The painting is composed of many layers; photos, paint, paper. What strikes at first sight is the familiar sepia tone photo of J.F Kennedy, who's pointing more or less in our direction. Next to it is another photo of a spaceman, the colors are contrasting as this one has more of a blue and cold tone. We can kind of see a vehicle at the top of the painting and a part of an old painting, also in the same tone as the spaceman, certainly from the renaissance. At the bottom of it we can assume there's a box filled with fruits, maybe apples. The painting is also composed of a lot of unclear pictures, like if the artist wanted us to doubt about what we can see.
The artist represented two American idols, J.F Kennedy and the spaceman which can also be assimilated to myths, that they may become in the future. But the painter didn't want to praise these characters but to criticize all the events of the period, we could think of the war in Vietnam if we make a link between the vehicle (it seems to be a war vehicle) and the president. With the spaceman we could also think of the Cold War and the race of space conquest between americans and soviets
I think this painting is very subtle as we could think at first sight that the painter is praising these American Idols but he is in fact criticizing them. The painting seems disordered and messy and I think the artist wanted to link it to the state of his country at the time, U.S. wasn't in a stable situation, a lot was happening with the U.S. and the rest of the world.
I thought the exhibition was also well done, I think it is important to see pop art exhibitions nowadays because I think it is present everywhere in art, a lot of artists nowadays are in fact descendants of pop art movement. We can now some street artists that mix pop art and street art that emerged at the same moment.
OK Ilyas.
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