● Presenting 150 works by Korean, Chinese and Japanese artists representative of Asian pop art which differs from Western pop art
● A glimpse into the popular life through contemporary art which eliminates the division of high art and low art
SEOUL SOUTH KOREA, November 18th 2010 - The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea is pleased to present the Made in Popland, an exhibition of approximately 150 works by 42 leading Korean, Chinese and Japanese pop artists, on November 12th, 2011. The exhibition reflects on the pop art of our time, through mass media and popular culture based works that represent the major trend in contemporary art of the three countries since late 1980s.
The basis of pop art, from Andy Warhol's work in 50s and 60s to British pop art and Jeff Koon's Neo Pop, involves recontextulizing the images of mass media, popular culture and mass consuming society by borrowing, appropriating and reproducing. Therefore, pop art is a very realistic trend of art that is based on solid reality.
While the works in this exhibition follow the basic method of pop art, many of them demonstrate multiple levels of difference from the common notion of 'pop art' in terms of form and content. They shed light on the political, economic and cultural reality of the society in which they are produced and contain various codes that reflect such society. Although the works deviate from the previous definition of pop art, they are clearly products of this very time in which we live.
This exhibition intends to focus on the pieces produced in the three countries in the 1980s and thereafter and pays attention to the content of the pieces rather than their images. That is a departure from the way people used to view pop art. This exhibition is divided into four sections as follows under the theme of the masses.
■ The Public Heroes
■ The Society of the Spectacle
■ The Return of the Repressed
■ Pain of Others
