The World Goes Pop
Tate Modern presents The World Goes Pop, an exhibition that explores the birth and development of pop art.
The World Goes Pop reveals how artists from across the world, from Latin America to Asia, Europe and the Middle East, interacted with and contributed to the spirit of pop art.
Shedding light on key figures of the era who have been left out of mainstream art history, The World Goes Pop shows how pop art was never simply a celebration of Western consumerism but also a rebellious language for criticism and public protests across the globe. The Pop Art Movement emerged in many countries as a political reaction to the market and media dominance of post-war America, and artists used its visual language to criticise capitalism.
While the mass perception of pop art is that of an Anglo-American phenomenon associated with artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the exhibition aims to reveal a relatively unknown story. While a common association with pop art are comic-book blondes and advertising models picturing the idealised female body, The World Goes Pop attempts to present another version by displaying a series of female artists who presented alternative visions. In their artworks the body is complex and visceral instead of ideal.
Another association with pop art is the hyper-individualised consumer and the isolated celebrity icon. On the other hand, The World Goes Pop sets out to show that global pop artists often used the amassed crowd as a more powerful symbol of contemporary culture, which is in sharp contrast to depictions of icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Some artists even merged the aesthetic of their folk traditions with the pop aesthetics, which resulted in contemporary imagery with local features.
Through more than 160 works, The World Goes Pop will showcase examples of these alternative stories of pop art and its development across time and cultures. The works featured span the time period from the 1960s and 1970s and include pieces that have not been exhibited in the United Kingdom before.
The exhibition will be on display from Thursday 17 September 2015 – Sunday 24 January 2016 at Tate Modern in London, United Kingdom.
—
