Pop Art Portraits

The Pop Art Portraits on show at the National Portrait Gallery look at the works of 28 pop artists from both the US and the UK, examining one of the most popular and influential of the 20th century art movements.

Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and the Godfather of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, are all on display in the exhibition, showing the major works that so revolutionised the conventions of portraiture in the 50s and 60s. Using images of the famous and the notorious taken from the media, the Pop Art portraits created a new genre of fantasy portraiture using the influences of popular art and culture.

Comic books, magazines and other modern mediums were the inspiration for the Pop Art Artists to create altered and transformed images of instantly recognisable faces. An obsession with celebrity and the changing influence of fame, the images are often warped versions of a very familar face or versions of the artist themselves put through the media celebrity filtered lens.

Looking at the similarities and differences between the American and the British Pop Artists, the exhibition engages in a visual dialogue between the two countries and their own cultural attitudes. Divided into six sections that Pop Art Portraits cover various different practises from both sides of the atlantic, with one common ground between them being the obsession with Marilyn Monroe. Bringing together the work of the artists in this section, the Marilyn area is presented as a secular chapel where Pop Art worships at the feet of this iconic figure from the period.

An important opportunity to see work from both the British and American Pop Artists alongside each other, the Pop Art Portraits at National Portrait Gallery shows the innovation and creativity behind the movement, and evokes the challenging nature of creating new and provocative art at the time.

If you would like to book tickets for the Pop Art Portraits exhibition, phone 020 7306 0055 for more information or visit the National Portrait Gallery website below.

National Portrait Gallery Website

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