Saturday 18 March 2017

The American Dream - British Museum

Andy Warhol, Vote McGovern, 1972 - colour screenprint
The American Dream: Pop to the Present is at the British Museum until 18 June 2017.
This exhibition made me so happy! From the moment I entered to find a suite of Andy Warhol's Electric Chair prints to my left and a suite of Marilyn prints to my right I knew this was going to be a great exhibition. And it is. It is a fabulous survey of modern American printmaking with great work by a host of great artists. In addition to Warhol the exhibition features Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Jenny Holzer, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra and many, many more. The survey spans the decades since the 1960s - from the moment of Pop and contemporary events such as the assasination of J.F. Kennedy, the Apollo 11 moon landing and Vietnam - through to the more recent period marked by AIDS and the politics of race and gender.
Read reviews by Alastair Sooke, Emily Spicer, Michael Glover, Marina Vaizey
(Click on images to enlarge.)
Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1971 - from suite of 10 colour sceeenprints
Jasper Johns, Flags II, 1973 - screenprint
Jim Dine, Five Paintbrushes (first state), 1972 - etching
Jim Dine, Five Paintbrushes (sixth state), 1973 - etching, drypoint, soft-ground and aquatint
Claes Oldenburg, Profile Airflow, 1969 - moulded polyurethane relief over lithograph
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, 1966 - colour screenprint
Bruce Nauman, Clear Vision, 1973 - lithograph and screenprint
Wayne Thiebaud, Bacon and Eggs, 1964 - etching
Robert Bechtle, '60 T-Bird, 1967 - etching
Richard Serra, Core, 1987 - screenprint with paintstick
Chuck Close, Phile Spitbite, 1995 - spit-bite aquatint and etching
Richard Estes, Grant's, 1972 - colour screenprint
Andy Warhol,  Jackie II, 1965 - colour screenprint
Jenny Holzer, AKA, 2006 (from AKA 1-5) - photo-etching
Mel Bochner, It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, 2013 - etching with aquatint

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