Andy Warhol is both the epitome and an icon of pop art. However, it doesn’t always have to be Warhol. An exhibition of this title at Ketterer Kunst in Berlin-Charlottenburg is demonstrating just that from 12 September to 09 October, 2011. With prices ranging between € 50 and € 10.000, the more than 60 original prints on display are affordable for all those who are interested in Pop Art.

What is considered Pop Art today has its origins in both the USA and England in the 1950s. It was Jasper Jones who made an artwork consisting of two bronze beer cans in 1959, three years before Andy Warhol came up with the famous Campbell soup tins, and in the series of prints named “Reaper”, Richard Hamilton decomposed a lawn mower into its parts as early as in 1949.

The artists ennobled objects of everyday use and thus took them to the pantheon of art, this was how they tore down barriers and paved the way for a complete reorientation. And it also happened in Germany: Everyday objects and situations, advertising, newspaper clips or screenshots from TV shows were sources of inspiration and central issues of New Realism, as the movement is called in Germany. But the focus of pop art artists all over the world was not merely on the observation of everyday occurrences, their themes also revolved around issues such as politics and sexual taboos.

Besides the glorification of these topics, the artists were increasingly concerned with social criticism and the often prevailing emptiness of modern life. The interest in the variety of means of artistic expression that Pop Art offered grew quick. The Berlin exhibition will give a comprehensive overview of the wide range of this highly topical art tendency.

Next to German artists like Dieter Asmus, Fritz Genkinger, Georg Kress and Hans J. Speßhardt, American and English names such as Jim Dine, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Allan Jones, Alex Katz, Ronald B. Kitaj, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Mel Ramos, Larry Rivers, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann are also represented. Particularly exciting are single sheets from the renowned portfolios “Eleven Pop Artists I-III“ published in 1965-66 by Philip Morris International, Original Editions New York. The portfolio was a project that has been made possible, among others,
with the support of renowned gallery owner Leo Castelli.

Exhibition title: It doesn’t always have to be Warhol:
Multiples and original graphic works by pop artists.
Exhibition duration: 12 September – 09 October, 2011
Mon. to Fri. from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Sat. from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Exhibition location: Ketterer Kunst, Fasanenstr. 70, 10719 Berlin

www.kettererkunst.com