Pop Art has descended and taken over the Saatchi Gallery as
110 artists from China, the former Soviet Union, Taiwan, UK and the US, with
250 pieces of artwork. From what I know of Pop Art are of Roy Liechtenstein and
Andy Warhol as well as ideas and conventions exploring celebrity culture and idea
of becoming engulfed in images of mass consumerism. With the exhibition, it
shows a whole different spectrum that branches from the Pop Art movement as it
makes its way across the borders of the UK and US into areas further afield
into the east. Saatchi is made up of divisional themes that make up the
exhibition as a whole: Habitat, Advertising and Consumerism, Ideology and
Religion, Sex and Body, Art History and Mass Media.
Starting off in Habitat, this section focusses on “man-made environments”
and the “mass-produced artefacts within it”. One of the works that struck me
was Ai Wei Wei’s Sofa in White from
the offset it looked like a white leather armchair, but upon closer inspection
proved to be marble. There are definitely images of the art conveying ideas of moving
to newer models and the modern such as Bill Woodrow’s Hoover Breakdown. There are also images of destruction of a habitat
in order to achieve modernisation from within our own homes which can be seen
in Richard Wood’s Nature Making.
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| Ai Wei Wei's Sofa in White |
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| Richard Wood's Nature Making |
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| Irina Karina's Chapel |
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| Gary Hume's Four Coloured Doors I |
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| Bill Woodrow's Hoover Breakdown |
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| Peter Halley's Prison |
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| Peter Halley's Prison with Yellow Background |
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| Michael Craig-Martin's Prick |
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| Julian Opie's Modern Tower |
Next section was Advertising and Consumerism with Pop Art
coming up in all different shapes and forms with entertaining prospects. As
expected, the works comes a whole continuum of colours shining through which
very much would expect from advertising. Wang Guangyi’s Great Criticism:
Benetton and Great Criticism: Swatch + Great Criticism: Pop used bold and
minimalistic colours with empowering imagery to bring together the stringent
opposition of socialism and consumerism. Works by Jeff Koons in this section
such as Encased – Three Rows takes a humorous approach to the obsession of
sport culture, especially behind American Basketball.
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| He An's I am Curious Yellow I am Curious Blue |
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| Fong Mengbo's Long March: Restart |
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| Wang Guangyi's Great Criticism: Swatch + Great Criticism: Pop |
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| Wang Guangyi's Great Criticism: Benetton |
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| Alexander Kosolapov's Icon Cavier |
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| Julie Opie's View of Matsuzaki Bay in the Rain, from Route136 |
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| Jeff Koon's Encased - Three Rows |
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| Jeff Koon's THree Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Two Spalding Shaq Attaq, One Spalding NBA Tip-Off) |
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| Alexander Kosolapov's Lenin and Coca-Cola |
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| Tom Sachs's Nutty's MacDonald's |
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| Inga Svala Thorsdottir & Wu Shanzhuan's Showing China From Its Best Sides, Thing's Right(s) |
The next section to follow was Ideology and Religion which
compares the East with the West approach to Pop Art in religion. Countries such
as Russia and China were challenged by ideals in their country which they used
to address by growing from the stems built from western Pop Art. Alexander
Kosolapov’s Hero, Leader, God sees
Mickey Mouse hand-in-hand with revolutionist Lenin and religious figure Jesus
Christ which I found to be powerful. Another art piece I was drawn to was
Sergey Shutov’s Abacus which employs machine
automated figures crouched in front of Anatoly Osmolovsky’s Bread Series 1 and Bread Series 3.
Gu Wanda's United Nations - Man and Space
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| David March's Die Harder |
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| Alexander Kosolapov's Hero, Leader, God |
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| Anatoly Osmolovsky's Bread Series 1 and Bread Series 3. Sergey's Shutov's Abacus |
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| Recycle Group's The Letter F |
The section on Sex and Body explores the cerebral and carnality
of sex and engaging with the senses within different mediums, especially a look
the embodiment of pornography in the internet age. Some art pieces are
extremely graphic has you head more and more into the gallery which like sex
can take on many. Moreover this section explores the senses through sex and the
body on a plane of audio and visuals.
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| David March's Undressed |
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| Julie Opie's This is Shahnoza |
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| Gary Hume's American Tan |
“Art History” explores the transcendence of pop art of how
it grows and transform from the foundations built in the 50’s and 60’s. The
section reconnoitres the move about “art being art” and if art can solely exist
within a vacuum. You can definitely see some influences in most of the works in
this section such as Luis Chan’s untitled works drawing inspiration from Richard
Hamilton.
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| Ai WeiWei's Coloured |
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| Boris Orlov - From the series "Additional Element" |
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| Luis Chan - Untitled |
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| Luis Chan - Untitled |
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| Pave Pepperstein's Black Square and Campbell |
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| Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro's Andy Warhol |
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| Vitally Kumar & Alexander Melaimid's Post Art No. 1 (Warhol) and Post Art No. 2 (Lichtenstein) |
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| Michael Craig-Martin's Untitled (Soup Can) |
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| Rostislav Lebedev's A Dream Come True |
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| Mike Bidlo's Not Warhol (Sixteen Silver Marilyn) |
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(Left - Right) Mike Bidlo's Not Warhol (Kellogg's Corn Flakes Box)
Mike Bidlo's Not Warhol (Brillo Soap Pads Box Pasadena Type)
Mike Bidlo's Not Warhol (Yellow Brillo Box [3 ¢ off]) |
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| Mike Bidlo's Not Warhol (Campbell's Soup Can, Chicken Gumbo Soup) |
Mass Media is the next section which explores celebrity and
popular culture through multiple streams of media. It goes without saying that
that a lot of figures, characters and locations that will be instantly recognisable
from the get-go like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.
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| Gary Hume's Michael |
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| George Pusenkoff's Double Elvis (After Warhol) |
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| David Mach's M & M |
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| Keith Haring - Untitled, 1982 |
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| Daniel Arsham's Ash Eroded Toy Phone |
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| Sergey Shekhovtsov's Singer |
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| George Pusenkoff's Artnews after Andy |
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| Valery Koshlyakov's Aphrodite |
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| Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)'s Spread B-047 |
Perception comes is prominent in this exhibition exploring upon our
influence of familiarity, which can be built on our firm preconceptions and
expectations. There is a continued theme that comes into the idea of an image
solidified in the back of our minds may not leave room for alternative
perspectives as we grow accustomed to it.
The exhibition started last year on the 26th November and
will be ending on the 23rd February 2015. The whole gallery given the exception
on the basement level is wholly based on the exhibition which makes it one of
my favourite galleries to visit.
