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

Picasso Linocuts - British Museum

Pablo Picasso, Still Life under the Lamp, 1962

Two linocuts by Picasso, along with the progressive proofs, have been acquired by the British Museum and are on display until 6 May 2014.
Both prints, the monochrome Jacqueline Reading, and the absolutely gorgeous Still Life under the Lamp, date from 1962 when Picasso was 81.  
Watch a video explaining Picasso's method devised for Still Life which was made by progressively cutting and printing from the same block rather than cutting a block for each colour. Read the Museum's press release.

Pablo Picasso, Jacqueline Reading, 1962