Pop-Art Epoch in Russia

September 14 - November 13, 2005

On September, 14, 2005 the exhibition "Pop-Art Epoch in Russia" opened at the Tretyakov Gallery in Krymsky Val, 10. It was organized jointly by the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum Centre at the Russia's State Humanitarian University with participation of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation. The exhibition was the first large-scale presentation of Russian pop-art spanning the period from 1960s to the present day. More than 40 leading artists of several generations were taking part in the exhibition.

As an esthetic phenomenon by itself pop-art originated in the USA and Europe in 1950-1960s to become an impressive artistic movement, which had changed traditional attitudes to modern art. For the first time the artist communicated with the audience in the language of images and signs of mass culture – industrial objects, advertisements, pictures on magazine pages. Interestingly, for a long time the Russian pop-art had been developing separately, outside the social-economical context characteristic of the American trend.

Parallel to this exhibition the exposition "Andy Warhol: the painter of contemporary life" from the Andy Warhol Art museum in Pittsburg, USA was taking place in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Krymsky Val.

Being connected by a common theme, the two exhibitions presented self-contained parts of a vast project giving the viewer a unique opportunity of getting acquainted with the creative work of the prominent Russian artists among the oeuvres of one of the leaders of American pop-art.