The British Museum is to present the UK’s first major exhibition examining contemporary and modern American printmaking from March.
This exhibition will reveal a medium which managed to capture America during some of its most turbulent and dynamic years, when the USA’s wealth, power and cultural influence had never been greater.
Featuring more than 200 works by 70 artists, the display will trace the creative progression of America across six decades, from when pop art emerged on the New York and West Coast scenes all the way through to the practises used by artists today.
Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see the work of some of America’s greatest and best known artists such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Chuck Close, Louise Bourgeois, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol.
Talking about the exhibition, British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer said: ” The American Dream is an extremely exciting project for the British Museum, highlighting our extraordinary holdings of American prints and drawings. The Museum has been building up this collection of modern and contemporary works since the hugely successful exhibition The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock in 2008.”
Some of the highlights of the exhibition will include large prints designed to be seen en masse, such as Warhol’s Marilyn, the minimalist linear inflections of the sculptor Donald Judd or the monumental woodcut Stowage by the African American Willie Cole on the legacy of slavery, will be shown alongside those on a smaller, more intimate scale, including artists’ books by Ed Ruscha, Ida Applebroog and others.
The American Dream: Pop to the Present will be on display at the British Museum from the 9th March until the 18th June. To book tickets visit: Love Theatre.com .