Culture

Patrick Caulfield

The first, true Brit Pop

June 04, 2013
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1973's Foyer, now in David Bowie's collection, will feature in the exhibition (© The Estate of Patrick Caulfield)




A retrospective at Tate Britain this summer will shine a light on the first, true Brit Pop. Born in 1936, Patrick Caulfield was a signature stylemaker of an irreverent art, flashing its bright colours just as the Beatles and Rolling Stones brought London to the world’s fascinated attention.

Caulfield’s single-tone, self-consciously designed paintings of interiors originally owed much, by his own admission, to the moody American, Edward Hopper. He seems to have arrived early at a highly distinctive style and knew, for 50 exuberant years on canvas, what worked—jugs, pottery, chairs, record players. A quiet man, who died in 2005, he disdained the epithet “Pop,” considering himself a formalist. At Tate Britain’s Linbury Galleries, the 30-plus Caulfield works on show—a significant number from private owners—will be complemented by a parallel exhibition of a new-generation Pop painter, Gary Hume (born 1962)—two pops, then, for the price of one.

Tate Britain, from 5th June