Art in a material world

Good business is the best art,” claimed Andy Warhol, and after this statement, art was never quite the same. Follow Jeff Koons’ Rabbit down the rabbit hole as Tate Modern’s exhibition ‘POP LIFE’ takes you on a journey through pop art’s pinnacles, from Warhol to his successors who embraced the idea of commerce and mass consumption as the subject of their work.

Including artists like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and many many more, ‘POP LIFE’ challenges our understanding of the relationship between art and commerce and traces the self-mythologizing process of artists as they embrace the world as it is: material.

When talking about pop art it is only natural to start with Warhol. But in stead of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe’s multiplied image, we get the notion of Warhol, the entrepreneur, the celebrity, the brand. From the introduction room of the exhibition, the visitor is confronted with a rarely seen video of Warhol, with his compulsory wig, advertising videocassettes for TDK Electronics. The exhibition also allows us to get close to Andy Warhol, the man, through one his personal almost fetishistic fixations, that on diamonds and jewels. His rarely exhibited Gems are magnified prints of precious stones in glowing phosphorescent paint and seem like a confession of his love of things.

The American artist Jeff Koons is one emblematic example of an artist immortalizing his work through the media. Jeff Koons’ artistic collection ‘Made In Heaven’ (1989) depicts him and Cicciolina as the contemporary Adam and Eve, “situated after the Fall, but without the guilt and shame,” as the sign read. And shame there definitely was not, which made for quite explicit sexual shots and a restriction sign on the door. If you find yourself staring at Koons’ muscular body, be aware that it was artificially groomed, not out of vanity but, as he claimed, so it can become “a vehicle of greater communication.”

Koons’ self-mythologizing demonstrates spirituality fall in the wake of materialist America. Even before him, Keith Haring embraced the idea of art consumerism by opening his Pop Shop in New York in 1986, selling a range of merchandise in his visual style. The exhibition offers an accurate reproduction of the shop, covered in Haring’s graffiti. Mass production of art has rid itself of negative connotations more and more insistently as the century progressed.

Posing even further questions on this notion Martin Kieppenberger ‘s Candidature à une Retrospective includes work executed not by him, but by friends and hired assistants who did the actual painting under his guidance and produced his line of art.

Relating the idea of mass production with nature, Damien Hirst further challenges the observer searching for meaning with the re-enactment of Ingo Torsen: an installation of identical twins, sitting in front of two of Hirst’ first dot paintings. On that note, if you have a twin and want a job, check Tate’s website.

As a culmination and a simultaneous ending ‘POP LIFE’ is a peak in Takashi Murakami’s crazy harajuku world, filled with all kinds of visual styles of Japanese pop culture. Modeled on Warhol’s factory, Murakami’s art studio extends its activities from fine art, to fashion, pop music and new media, breaking the fourth wall of art, breaking into the “real” world.

One of the most attention-grabbing works, besides the series of customised footwear, is a short film set in Tokyo’s manga centre, Akihabara, aiming to translate Japanese subculture to the western audience.

Kirsten Dunst was cast in the role of the main anime character Majokko (“magical princess”); as a familiar face of the western world and her performance is the ultimate demonstration of the meeting point between celebrity culture, art and media.

After all that, one might ask what makes all of those works art? Maybe the answer is hidden in the very question.