From special edition dinner plates to tea services, vases to mugs the
exhibition, Pop Art & Pottery, features items from private collections that have
not been displayed before in public.
Curated by independent curator Nick Duxbury and using Wolverhampton Art
Gallery’s Pop art collection as an anchoring point, the exhibition brings the
conversations around Pop art into the 21st century. It includes works by
contemporary ceramic artists who use everyday objects as their canvas for
pop culture references and the kind of iconography that would be familiar to
the originators of Pop art.
Driven by the curator David Rodgers, the Art Gallery first began collecting Pop
art in the late 1960s when it was still relatively new and controversial. At first,
the growing collection attracted negative media attention and provocative
headlines. Rodgers himself was labelled ‘a rebel leader of the arts’. Today,
Pop art is considered one of Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s most culturally
significant and internationally renowned collections. Visitors come from far
and wide to view it and our Pop works go out on loan to exhibitions all around
the world.
Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet
Member for Visitor City, said: “As a city we pride ourselves on this
phenomenal collection that began back in 60s.
“Visitors come from far and wide to view the collection and our Pop works go
out on loan to exhibitions all around the world. I urge all to come along to the
gallery and be inspired.”
Pop art and ceramics have a strong but overlooked history. Since Pop
emerged as an art movement in the mid-1950s, many leading Pop artists
have produced designs for some of the biggest ceramics manufacturers in the
world. Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake and Patrick Caulfield designed items for
Wedgwood, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol for Rosenthal, Keith Haring for
Villeroy & Boch, and Sister Corita Kent for Hackett American Collectors.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery houses the largest collection of Pop art outside of
London and featuring alongside Pop Art & Pottery there will be a number of
the city’s Pop art collection on display.
Pop Art & Pottery is a free exhibition and can be seen during gallery opening
times, Monday to Saturday (10.30am - 4.30pm) and Sunday (11am - 4pm).