Post Pop: East Meets West - Saatchi Gallery (part 1: East)

Alexander Kosopalov, Hero, Leader, God, 2007

Born Moscow, 1943. Studied at the Stroganov Art School, Moscow. Emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1975. Lives and works in New York City.

Post Pop: East Meets West is at the Saatchi Gallery until 23 February 2015.

The Saatchi Gallery’s new show is a large scale encounter between British and American  ‘Post Pop’ and Oriental artists from China, Taiwan and the former Soviet Union, who have adapted something of the flavour and attitude of Western Pop to their own cultural contexts. Clearly, such a large show (more than 100 artists) will produce mixed results. However, it is refreshing and instructive to be confronted with a broadly familiar visual language inflected with different accents and a different sensibility.

I realize that the point of such an exercise is to mix things up – however, I found that I could better get a handle on the content and the cultural contrasts by separating out East and West. So, I have selected my parallel top 10 exhibits – albeit selected from reproductions rather than an encounter in the exhibition itself. This is Part 1: East. (Click here for Part 2: West.)

Read reviews by Waldemar Januszczak and Jonathan Jones.

(NB artists are listed in alphabetical order; brief biographies are taken from the Saatchi Gallery website; click on images to enlarge.)

Eric Bulatov, Perestroika, 1989

Born Sverdlovsk, Russia, 1933. Graduated from the Painting department of the Surikov State Art Institute, Moscow in 1958. Lives and works in Paris.

Liu Dahong, Sacrificial Altar, 2001

Born Qingdao, China, 1962. Studied at Shandong University of Arts, Jinan and at China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Lives and works in Shanghai.

Wang Guangyi,  Great Criticism: Benetton, 大批判, 1992

Born Harbin, China, 1957. Studied at China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Lives and works in Beijing.

Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid, The Origin of the Nostalgic Social Realism, 1982-3

Vitaly Komar born Moscow, 1943 and Alexander Melamid, born Moscow, 1945. Studied at the Stroganov Art School, Moscow. Emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1976. Founders of the Sots Art
movement. Live and work in New York City.

Valery Koshlyakov, Socrates, 2009

Born Salsk, Russia, 1962. Graduated from Grekov Art College, Rostov-on-Don. Lives and works in Moscow.

Tseng Kwong-Chi, San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge), 1979-86

Born Hong Kong, 1950, died New York City, 1990. Studied at Académie Julian, Paris. Lived and worked in New York City.

Rotisalav Lebedev,  A Drem Comes True, 2008

Born Moscow, 1946. Graduated from the Art and Graphics department of the Moscow State V. I. Lenin Pedagogical Institute. Member of the Moscow Union of Artists since 1994. Lives and works in Moscow.

Fang Lijun, Untitled, 2011-12

Born Hebei Province, China, 1963. Studied at at Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. Lives and works in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Yu Youhan, Seated Mao, 1996

Born Shanghai, China, 1943. Studied at Central Academy of Art & Design, Beijing. Lives and works in Shanghai.

(Click here for Part 2: West)