POST 6: An Art Exhibition Review

🔺 POP ART MYTHS 🔻

10 JUNE - 14 SEPTEMBER, 2014

Madrid - Museo THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA

 Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid, Spain

Today I would like to talk about the “Pop Art Myth” art exhibition. It took place in Madrid (Spain), from the 10^th of June to the 14^th of September 2014. It was exhibited at the Thyssen Bornemisza museum , situated on Paseo del Prado 8, one of the most artistic area of the city. The exhibition is about the famous liberating movement of Pop Art, its purpose, and its culture, during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. 

If you would like to have some more information on the exhibition, you can click here.

                                               Roy Lichtenstein Woman in Bath, 1963

The artists exhibited were Andy Warhol, Wolf Vostell, Peter Blake, Mimmo Rotella, Tom Wesselmann and many more. "Pop Art Myth" wanted to assemble all the Pop artists of the time: from the pioneering works of British and American artists, to the Pop derivations that surfaced in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, they all shared the same ambition of making a break with the past.

The exhibition was actually divided into pertinent "sections". It opens with several "collages" by Pop Art precursors Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi. Moving along, comes the "emblems" section where great artists such as Jasper Johns, Briton Peter Blake and Andy Warhol represented certain everyday objects. Robert Indiana on the other hand, turned words such as "food" or "eh" into emblems. The other sections in the exhibition are "myths, portraits, landscapes, interiors and still life's, urban eroticism, and history painting".

I found this exhibition very interesting in the way that it was organised by different sections. It really helped me to see and understand the different topics which were represented in Pop Art. During the visit I could really notice the big changes that were involved during this time. Big brands were being created, advertisement were popping up everywhere, Hollywood and all the celebrities were the centre of the attention and had people dreaming.

In my opinion "Pop Art Myth" can bring viewers back to the 50's. What is really worth seeing is how a simple object, like a box of soap, artist's such as Andy Wahrol, managed to create something really complex, innovating and even a little enigmatic. The artist changed our way of  looking at apparently ordinary things, objects of everyday use transformed into a piece of art.

                                       

 

                                                   Andy Warhol Brillo Soap Pads, 1964 

I personally find the pop art sculptures really fascinating, but I must admit that one of the paintings that really caught my eyes is Still Life #34 by Tom Wesselmann. I find the idea of doing a still life with usual products, such as a Coca-Cola, remarkable because it illustrates the contrast between the new consumer culture with the reinterpretation of the art of the past.

                                                  Tom Wesselmann Still life #34, 1963

                                 

This exhibition can be related to the notion of Myths and Heroes by the way Pop artists often based their works around celebrities and famouse figure of their time, such as Marilyn Monreo or James Dean, or famous cartoon character, such as Mickey Mouse. They are represented as heroes and/or myths in order for people to identify themselves to the piece of art, threw something they already know.

My name is Emanuela Polo and I'm a twelfth year student in high school in the Lycee Francais of Madrid. My mother is an artist and I often go to some exhibitions. On top of that, I would like to work in art later, so I do have a little bit of experience in this field. I lived in Portland (Oregon), Vienna, Turin, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Madrid. Different types of culture always interested me a lot, that's why I enjoyed this exhibition so much.

When it comes to Pop Art, I personally find this movement captivating. While visiting the exhibition, I discovered a piece of art called Marilyn Idol that caught my attention. It was realised by the talented artist Wolf Vostell in 1962, during the Pop Art movement, and it represents several posters stick together and half torn of Marilyn Monroe. I must admit that it is the piece of the exhibition which strikes me the most, there is no denying that it is really interesting to see that simple posters can create something really captivating and beautiful in my opinion .The intention of the artist was to show the icon who Marilyn Monroe was for Americans. I would relate this Art work to the notion of Myths and Heroes because of the idea about this famous and immortal figure that is Marilyn Monroe, and the way she is transformed into a kind of heroin and even a myth.  The way she is represented several time, like a fan would do , shows us how the artist aims to insist on the bomb shell image of Marilyn during the 60's and how people would look up to her. Another way of looking at this piece is that through all of those pictures of Monroe there is a hidden message of the harassment whom celebrities were going through because of the insane curiosity of the paparazzi and journalist regarding their personal lives and intimacy. 
Furthermore, it is true to say that Vostell was right to consider Marilyn Monroe like a myth or a legend, as she stays even nowadays an idol and her unique style is still being copied.

                                                              Wolf Vostell Marilyn Idol, 1962

(detail)

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                            🔺 About the Artist 🔻 

Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happening and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are characteristic of his work, as is embedding objects in concrete and the use of television sets in his works.

                                                    

Wolf Vostell

             

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Vostell        

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Finally I would like to talk about an other exhibition which was shown in Madrid at the same time of the Pop Art Myth one. It was at the Museum Reina Sofia and it focused on one of the great protagonists of Pop Art, Richard Hamilton. 
If you would like to have some more information on the exhibition, you can click here.

Both exhibitions, made up of more than 300 works of art, look at the traditional myths of the Pop movement in a different angle, highlighting the turbulence of a society that sought to forget the trauma of the second world war.  

That was it for my art review about the exhibition "Pop Art Myth", I hope you liked it and I'll see you next week for a new art review!