Pop Life
The exhibition Pop Life takes Andy Warhol’s famously provocative claim that “good business is the best art” as the starting point for a completely new interpretation of the legacy of Pop art and the influence of its chief protagonists. Pop Life shows the various ways in which artists since the 1980s have engaged
with the mass media, often involving the deliberate creation and cultivation of an artistic persona as a ‘brand’.
The exhibition features works by Andy Warhol alongside key pieces by Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Martin Kippenberger, Tracey Emin, Takashi Murakami and others. Some 320 exhibits will be on display, including paintings, drawings, photographs, magazines, sculptures, videos, merchandising products, spatial installations and a shop.
Pop Life argues that Andy Warhol’s most radical lesson is reflected in the work of artists of subsequent generations who not only reproduce everyday culture in their artworks but also strategically infiltrate this realm, appropriating the mechanisms of the market, the mass media and the omnipresence of advertising in order to reach an audience far beyond the confines of the art gallery.
The conflation of culture and commerce is commonly regarded as a betrayal of the values of modern art; Pop Life, on the other hand, shows that for many artists who came after Warhol, the fusion of the two realms is the only possible means of interacting with the modern world.
One of the central themes of the exhibition is the performative aspect revealed by the self-presentation and role perception of artists within the spheres of the mass media and the art business. The artists themselves are actively involved in key areas – among other things as forgers, celebrities, publishers, art dealers, gallerists, business owners, curators, TV presenters, even auctioneers. They smuggle themselves in disguise into the operating systems of product and information circulation, exposing these mechanisms without having to take a personal stance. Herein lies the ambiguous content – affirmative and critical at once – of Pop Life.
You will find more info also at www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/poplife/.
| Dates | 02/12/2010 - 05/09/2010
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| Opening Hours | Di-So 10:00-18:00 Uhr
Do 10:00-21:00 Uhr |
| Hint | Reduced admission: 5,00 €
Family ticket: 14,00 €
Children under the age of 18: free entrance |
| Advice: | Access to some of the exhibition rooms can not be granted to visitors under 18 years. |