Europop at Kunsthaus Zurich on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Feb 15 2008
until May 12 2008
Europop traces the artistic attitudes and modes of expression typical of the 1950s and 1960s beginning in London, where the term Pop Art was coined around 1955, and proceeding to Paris, Düsseldorf and Milan. With over 80 major pieces from more than ten European countries, the Kunsthaus Zürich makes a case for the continuing relevance of one of the most intensive and influential artistic schools of the 20th century. In the mid-1950s, artists on both sides of the Atlantic began to think creatively about the visual culture of the mass media. The Kunsthaus exhibition, curated by Tobia Bezzola and Franziska Lentzsch, examines the way European artists like Sigmar Polke, David Hockney, Niki de Saint Phalle and Gerhard Richter felt about this new concern, and how they dealt with it in their work. A detailed survey featuring pieces from both public and private collections demonstrates the broad spectrum of artistic reactions, whether idiosyncratic or born of a particular environment, to Pop’s signal preoccupations: ‘Consumerism‘, ‘Spectacle‘, ‘Media‘ and ‘Leisure‘. As with Dada, its ancestor in the family tree of art history, Pop Art is not primarily a matter of technique, form or style, but rather of attitude. The range includes plain naïveté and admiring emulation; an ironic, caricaturist’s way with the icons of billboards and glossy weeklies; critical, at times subversive commentary; and finally, the cynic’s exploitative borrowing of the expressive vocabulary of commercial art. Works by the following artists were chosen to represent the spectrum of European Pop Art: Thomas Bayrle, Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, KP Brehmer, Erró, Öyvind Fahlström, Franz Gertsch, Domenico Gnoli, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Alain Jacquet, Allen Jones, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Konrad Lueg, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Phillips, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Sigmar Polke, Martial Raysse, Gerhard Richter, Mimmo Rotella, Niki de Saint Phalle, Peter Stämpfli and Wolf Vostell. Celebrated single pieces by Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann and Roy Lichtenstein were selected as an index of the duality of Pop’s trans- Atlantic career. OPENING HOURS: Sat, Sun, Tue: 10.00 - 18.00 Wed - Fri: 10.00 - 20.00 Image Captions: Image 1: David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967, Acryl auf Leinwand, 242,5 x 243,9 cm, Tate, © 2008 David Hockney Studio, Los Angeles Image 2: Franz Gertsch. Mireille, Colette, Anne, 1967 , Dispersion auf Papier auf Pavatex, 230,5 x 155,5 cm, Hess Art Collection, Bern, © 2008 Franz Gertsch  |
