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Art

London,

Pop Art Portraits

Description: Work by artists from both sides of the Atlantic, including Warhol, Rauschenberg, Hamilton and Caulfield.



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National Portrait Gallery St Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE

Phone: 0207312 2463

Website: www.npg.org.uk

Extra info: Telephones, Pub, Party Hire, Food, Air Conditioning

Transport: Rail/Tube: Charing Cross; Tube: Leicester Square/Embankment Transport for London , Tube / Bus: 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 88, 139, 159, 176, 453 Transport for London

Oddities of Pop Art

Interesting Journey
Abstract: Interesting Journey by Allen Jones

Fisun Guner, Metro 12 Oct 2007


Two versions of Richard Hamilton's Swingeing London are on show in two exhibitions in London: at the Hayward Gallery's The Painting Of Modern Life, and now, less convincingly, at the National Portrait Gallery's Pop Art Portraits.

The 1967 canvas shows an image of Mick Jagger handcuffed to art dealer Robert Fraser, both having been arrested on minor drugs charges. Their faces are obscured by raised hands and the work is more social critique than an exploration of image or personality. So on both counts, you might think it an odd inclusion in an exhibition on portraiture.

But then Pop Art Portraits is full of oddities, even more so with Hamilton's seminal 1956 photocollage Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? The work may contain a few advertising-related mugshots but how the curators thought it qualified for the portrait department is unclear. The same could be said about the abstract blurs of Interesting Journey by Allen Jones.

Quibbles about genre-crossing aside, this is still a limp survey. Featuring a host of British and American pop artists, the Brits are largely put in the shade, with much of the best work belonging to Andy Warhol (his Double Elvis beats everything else). Still, Pop Art Portraits does present an oxymoron. The movement was, after all, more about celebrating surface than going beneath the skin.

Until Jan 20, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, WC2, daily 10am to 6pm (Thu and Fri to 9pm), £9, £8 and £7 concs. Tel: 020 7306 0055. www.npg.org.uk Tube: Leicester Square/Charing Cross

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