Viewing Room
American Icons
Legacy
Vibrant and uplifting, American
Icons showcases abstract expressionist, pop-art and street-art works amongst others, by
pivotal American artists that heralded the onset of 21 st century contemporary art.
Leaving their mark in art history and revolutionizing the modern art world, these diverse and experimental New World artists have pushed boundaries forging forward, reimagining the meaning of sculpture and painting, exploiting taboo subject matters and social commentaries, appropriating popular imagery and giving them a new lease of life. These American icons share a certain clarity, boldness, grandeur of scale and incredible confidence.
Leaving their mark in art history and revolutionizing the modern art world, these diverse and experimental New World artists have pushed boundaries forging forward, reimagining the meaning of sculpture and painting, exploiting taboo subject matters and social commentaries, appropriating popular imagery and giving them a new lease of life. These American icons share a certain clarity, boldness, grandeur of scale and incredible confidence.
Tom Wesselmann
Sunset Nudes is most certainly Wesselmann's most important group of paintings since the iconic Great American Nudes of the 1960s. This series (2002-2004) recalls the highly provocative, sexed-up blondes of the earlier series in a refined and flawless light. Swaths of bold colours are tightly contained within contiguous lines to create a smooth and seductive composition.
Sunset Nudes is most certainly Wesselmann's most important group of paintings since the iconic Great American Nudes of the 1960s. This series (2002-2004) recalls the highly provocative, sexed-up blondes of the earlier series in a refined and flawless light. Swaths of bold colours are tightly contained within contiguous lines to create a smooth and seductive composition.
Tom Wesselmann
Sunset Nude (Variation #1)2002
oil on canvas, 170,2 x 193 cm (67 x 76 in)
George Condo
Nu assis2008
oil on linen, 132,1 x 106,9 cm (52 x 42.1 in)
George Condo
Fascinated with the greats of Art History and with Picasso a key touchstone and influence, Condo refers to his work as "psychological Cubism".
Fascinated with the greats of Art History and with Picasso a key touchstone and influence, Condo refers to his work as "psychological Cubism".
" Picasso painted a violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same. with
psychological states."
Keith Haring
Haring's works capture the artist's invented version of reality that defined his artistic career offering a deeply personal and critically important narrative. If many of his creations appear celebratory and playful, he was a politically active and socially conscious artist, interested in reflecting and responding to the cultural climate in which he lived.
Haring's works capture the artist's invented version of reality that defined his artistic career offering a deeply personal and critically important narrative. If many of his creations appear celebratory and playful, he was a politically active and socially conscious artist, interested in reflecting and responding to the cultural climate in which he lived.
Keith Haring
Untitled1988
acrylic on canvas, 122 x 91,5 cm (48 x 36 in)
Installation view, American Icons,
Legacy, Opera Gallery ©
Tom Wesselmann
Nude with Bouquet and Stockings1985
Enamel on laser-cut steel, 84,4 x 218,4 cm (33.2 x 86 in)
"I have always used drawings as a necessary part of my paintings and my paintings
are almost always an outgrowth of drawing."
Andy Warhol
Kimiko Powers1972
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 101,6 x 101,6 cm (40 x 40 in)
Andy Warhol
Ladies and Gentlemen (Ivette and Lurdes)1975
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, 35,6 x 28 cm (14 x 11 in)
Warhol's intense fascination with stardom, immortality through
celebrity-status
and beauty drew him to iconic
figures from the one-of-a-kind Marilyn Monroe to the personalities of the political sphere like
Jackie Kennedy.
Warhol began his Marilyn portraits the day of her death in 1962 and his images of Jackie Kennedy
were created
just days after the assassination of her husband in 1963.
As an artist/marketeer, he keenly perceived social trends and sorted the extraordinary events and
personalities
from the ordinary.
American Icons
Jackie1964
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 50,8 x 40,6 cm (20 x 16 in)
Installation view, American Icons,
Legacy, Opera Gallery ©
Alex Katz
Roses on Blue2002
oil on canvas, 122 x 381 cm (48 x 150 in)
Alex Katz utilizes bold
simplicity,
heightened colour,
and economy of line to create stylized landscapes or portraits that are defined by their hard-edge
and flatness of form.
"I like to make an image that is so simple you can't avoid it, and so
complicated you can't figure it out."
Robert Indiana
Love (Gold faces - Red sides)1966-2002
Polychrome aluminium, 182,9 x 182,9 cm (72 x 72 in)
Robert Indiana’s
archetypal stacked LOVE composition, with its bold serif lettering of VE stacked beneath the L and off-kilter O, is one of the most ubiquitous works of art of the century.
archetypal stacked LOVE composition, with its bold serif lettering of VE stacked beneath the L and off-kilter O, is one of the most ubiquitous works of art of the century.
“Some people like to paint trees. I like to paint love. I find it more
meaningful than painting trees.”
Installation view, American Icons,
Legacy, Opera Gallery ©
"The drawings which I do have very little in common with drawings in the classical
sense as they developed during the Renaissance, and the drawings that imitate life or make a
lifelike impression.
My drawings do not try to imitate life, they try to create life, to invent life."
My drawings do not try to imitate life, they try to create life, to invent life."
Keith Haring
Untitled (May 24-83)Acrylic on paper, 183 x 381 cm (72 x 150 in)
Installation view, American Icons,
Legacy, Opera Gallery ©
Frank Stella
Niveau 1A2001
Painted cast metal, 154,9 x 182,9 x 45,7 cm (61 x 72 x 18 in)
Frank Stella
intends for his work to have the same visual impact as cinematic performance. His works are unpredictable – full of surprising twists and turns.
intends for his work to have the same visual impact as cinematic performance. His works are unpredictable – full of surprising twists and turns.
“It seems to me that there’s some hint of this kind of chaotic, ambiguous figuration in
painting, with its inherent three-dimensional illusionism in constant tension with its
two-dimensional surfaces.”
George Condo
Whistler's Father2019
Acrylic and oil sick on canvas, 193 x 188 cm (76 x 74 in)
"Picasso painted a violin from four different prespectives at one moment. I do the
same with psychological states."
Sam Francis
Untitled1973
Acrylic on paper, 116,2 x 78,7 cm (45.7 x 31 in)
Sam Francis’s
work conveys a captivating balance between chaos and order, light and dark, reverberating with the rhythmic movement of the artist. He skillfully manages to combine luscious colours, exuberant application of thinned-out paint, and significantly, a serenely poetic deployment of negative space.
work conveys a captivating balance between chaos and order, light and dark, reverberating with the rhythmic movement of the artist. He skillfully manages to combine luscious colours, exuberant application of thinned-out paint, and significantly, a serenely poetic deployment of negative space.
"Color is born of the interpenetration of light and dark."
Installation view, American Icons,
Legacy, Opera Gallery ©
"There was a time when I realized that the central focal point of portraiture did
not have to be representational in any way.
You don't need to paint the body to show the truth about a character. All you need is the head and
the hands."
George Condo
Untitled2015
graphite on paper, 76,8 x 111,8 cm (30.2 x 44 in)
Tom Wesselmann
Study for Claire1992
Liquitex on cardboard, 60 x 48 cm (23.6 x 18.9 in)
In 1957 Wesselmann had met fellow art
student Claire Selley,
the model for many of his works, who would later become his wife.
Alex Katz
Corinne2006
oil on canvas, 122 x 244 cm (48 x 96 in)
Installation view, American Icons,
Legacy, Opera Gallery ©
Keith Haring
For Honda1987
White marker on black paper, 62,5 x 48 cm (24.6 x 18.9 in)
"Art is for everybody."
"The drawings which I do have very little in common with drawings in the
classical
sense as they developed during the Renaissance, and the drawings that imitate life or make a
lifelike impression. My drawings do not try to imitate life, the try to create life, to invent
life."
Keith Haring
Untitled # 161988
sumi ink on paper, 76,2 x 101,6 cm (30 x 40 in)
Kenny Scharf
Blobztec2018
oil on Linen with Powder Coated, 121,9 x 121,9 cm (48 x 48 in)
Kenny Scharf
self-described ”Pop Surrealist," Scharf employs a range of techniques, media and allusions to create hallucinatory worlds filled with floating donuts, cartoon characters and bright-coloured, often-anthropomorphic blobs. His paintings bridge the gap between fine art and popular culture.
self-described ”Pop Surrealist," Scharf employs a range of techniques, media and allusions to create hallucinatory worlds filled with floating donuts, cartoon characters and bright-coloured, often-anthropomorphic blobs. His paintings bridge the gap between fine art and popular culture.
“One very important and guiding principle to my work is to reach out
beyond
the elitist boundaries of fine art and connect to popular culture through my art. My
personal
ambition has always been to live the example. I believe the artist has a social
responsibility
to engage others in a thought process that ultimately brings art into everyday life thereby
enhancing the quality of our experience.”