Pop! A juxtaposition

Tate's current EY exhibition The World Goes Pop reevaluates the Pop Art movement as an international one, rather than the western consumer culture phenomenon we are used to associating with Pop Art.

The spaces are devoid of Blakes, Warhols and Litchtensteins and replaced with works by Russian, Polish and Chinese artists who focus their work on exploring the effects of the Sovient Revolution and the Cold War.

Upon entering the exhibition you are completely overwhelmed by cartoon imagery and bright red walls which completely overwhelm.

Ushio Shinohara
Doll Festival 1966

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Yamamura Collection)
© Ushio and Noriko Shinohara

Ushio Shinohara's Doll Festival 1966 is an enormous piece which forces - through it gaudy colours and block imagery - to consider 1960s materiality in an autonomous Chinese context.

There are lots of interesting works, but the exhibition does feel a little 'bitty' at times; almost like the curatorial concept is 'here's some Pop that's not by Hamilton'. The word juxtaposition features on every label and ultimately that is the idea behind the exhibition; it shows us them at the cartoon imagery of Pop can be used to address some pretty serious socio-political issues.

For £16 though you will get to see the world's weird and wonderful Pop from South America to the Middle East and back again.

Tate Modern until 24th January 2015

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-world-goes-pop