Knowledge Quarter Private View: The American Dream at the British Museum
When: 8.30 – 9.30, Thursday 25 May 2017
Where: The British Museum, Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG
The Knowledge Quarter is delighted to invite staff from Knowledge Quarter organisations to the next in our series of private breakfast views. It will be on this occasion hosted at the British Museum. KQ staff and partner organisations will have the opportunity to have an exclusive look at The American Dream: pop to the present the British Museum’s new blockbuster exhibition.
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About The American Dream
The past six decades have been among the most dynamic and turbulent in US history, from JFK’s assassination, Apollo 11 and Vietnam to the AIDS crisis, racism and gender politics. Responding to the changing times, American artists produced prints unprecedented in their scale and ambition.
Starting with the explosion of pop art in the 1960s, the exhibition includes works by the most celebrated American artists. From Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg to Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker and Julie Mehretu – all boldly experimented with printmaking. Experience this extraordinary history through their eyes.
Taking inspiration from the world around them – billboard advertising, global politics, Hollywood and household objects – American artists created highly original prints to rival their paintings and sculptures. Printmaking brought their work to a much wider and more diverse audience.
The sheer inventiveness and technical ingenuity of their prints reflects America’s power and influence during this period. Many of these works also address the deep divisions in society that continue to resonate with us today – there are as many American dreams as there are Americans.
This exhibition presents the Museum’s outstanding collection of modern and contemporary American prints for the first time. These will be shown with important works from museums and private collections around the world.
Please note that registration for this private view opens on Thursday 20th April.
