LONDON ISSUE 92 Oct 2007

Pop Art Portraits [11 Oct - 20 Jan]

This major international exhibition is the first to explore the role and significance of portraiture within Pop Art, one of the most important and popular artistic movements of the twentieth century. Presenting a visual dialogue between American and British Pop, the exhibition focuses on key portraits by leading artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton.

Pop Art flourished in Britain and the USA during the 1950s and 1960s and was closely connected with the rise of consumer culture. For that reason Pop is usually seen as being concerned with the depiction of objects. Pop Art Portraits takes a different view. It shows how Pop artists reinvigorated and redefined portraiture, creating new kinds of portraits: from those depicting recognisable sitters, to portraits with a hidden or imaginary subject.

The exhibition is divided into six sections, including screenings of Warhol's influential 'Screen Tests' and a secular 'chapel' devoted to portraits of film star Marilyn Monroe.