Jane Kinsman (1st R), head of international art in National Gallery of Australia (NGA), introduces the exhibits at the NGA in Canberra, Australia, Sept. 9, 2019. An exhibition at the NGA was aimed to take visitors back to the heyday of America's print-making renaissance with works of art by some of the 20th century's artists. The exhibition, "Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection", runs from last weekend until March 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Liang Tianzhou)
CANBERRA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) was aimed to take visitors back to the heyday of America's print-making renaissance with works of art by some of the 20th century's artists.
The exhibition, "Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection", runs from last weekend until March 9, 2020. It collected works from Anni and Josef Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Nancy Graves and David Hockney, demonstrating their innovation and technical virtuosity in a revitalized era of print-making in the latter half of the 20th century which was labeled as a "print renaissance".
"It represents the remarkable development in prints in post-war America," said Jane Kinsman, Head of International Art in NGA.
"There are some pop artists taking subject matters from everyday life, comic books, shoes, toothbrushes, everything that we thought could not be art, and they made into art," she told Xinhua on Monday.
Among them was Roy Lichtenstein. His Reflection prints used images from his previous works, particularly comic books like the Wonder Woman, which were partly obscured, as if the image was seen behind glass or reflected on another surface.
Talking about the works of Jasper Johns, Kinsman said they showed visitors what an artist can do in a workshop. "You can use techniques, you can think broadly, the most exciting ways possible, you can do almost anything you want to do," he said. "That actually changed the art practice for the better."
The "High School Days", from lead relief, showed a shoe with a round mirror at the tip. It reminded people of the boys who used the mirrors on their shoes to peep up girls' skirts. On exhibition were also "The Critic Smiles" with golden teeth on a toothbrush, and "Toast" among other five lead reliefs.
At the exhibition, a famous piece was Andy Warhol's "Vote McGovern", which has later inspired artists to change the face into other figures including American President Donald Trump.
In his work, Warhol chose to do a portrait not of the Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, but the incumbent Republican president Richard Nixon. He adapted the image from the cover of Newsweek in January 1969, changing the color of his face into green and lips into yellow.
"Then there are artists who work in a more abstract way, focusing on emotion, sensation, and spiritual experience that transform the brain if not the eye," said Kinsman.
She talked about David Hockney, with his "A Diver, Paper Pool 17". "It is how you depict someone diving," she said. "How do you show the light, how do you show the water moving, how do you show the figure under water...Interestingly that you get the impression of Monet: how do you depict things as you see them."
National Gallery of Australia Director Nick Mitzevich said the national collection had benefited from the foresight of inaugural director James Mollison, who made the first acquisition from Tyler in 1973, as well as significant subsequent purchases, and Tyler's generous gifts to the Gallery.
"Kenneth Tyler wasn't bound by convention. He offered these artists -- some of the most talented of the era -- almost limitless opportunities for creativity and experimentation at his workshop. His vision helped re-establish print-making as a leading form of visual art," Mitzevich said.
