13 rooms in Media Networks
Survey global artworks that reflect on social and political issues via images from the mass media
Pop art engages with the mass-produced imagery of popular culture. It is often thought of as a North American and British phenomenon, but in fact a wide range of different cultures and countries contributed to the pop movement during the 1960s and 1970s.
What unites the diverse work in this room is the presence of figures or other recognisable forms – a reaction to the dominance of abstraction in mid-twentieth-century art. The imagery is often borrowed from advertising and the popular press, and many works mimic the bold shapes and colours of product packaging or signage.
But as the works here show, drawing on popular or commercial sources doesn’t lead pop art to celebrate consumerism. Instead it can encompass a range of responses, from cool irony to subversive social critique.
Curated by Flavia Frigeri.
Art in this room
You've viewed 6 /12 artworks
You've viewed 12/12 artworks
1/
Art in Beyond Pop
Roy Lichtenstein
Whaam!
1963
André Fougeron
Atlantic Civilisation
1953
Evelyne Axell
Valentine
1966
Sigmar Polke
Untitled (Square 2)
2003
Chryssa
Study for Gates No. 4
1967
Viktor Pivovarov
This is Radio Moscow ...
1992–6
Colin Self
Hot Dog Sculpture
1965
Sir Eduardo Paolozzi
Mechaniks Bench
1963
Parviz Tanavoli
The Poet and the Beloved of the King
1964–6
Sir Eduardo Paolozzi
The City of the Circle and the Square
1963 and 1966
Roy Lichtenstein
Wall Explosion II
1965
Boris Orlov
Military Person
1979
Find out more
-
Pop art
Explore this term in Tate’s glossary -
Political pop
Explore this term in our glossary -
Nouveau réalisme
Explore this term in our glossary
Shop
-
-
Antonio Dias paw silk scarf
£135.00Mixing pop art, fashion, parody and politics this large silk scarf features a design from a work by Brazilian pop artist Antonio Dias