Peter Saul

About

In the late 1950s a lone wolf began a concerted attack on America’s high culture. Long before ”Bad Painting” became a central concern of contem­po­rary art, Peter Saul quite delib­er­ately offended good taste. In his unmis­tak­able vein the artist devel­oped a crossover of Pop Art, Surre­alism, Abstract Expres­sionism, San Fran­cisco funk and cartoon culture in which he addressed polit­ical and social topics. He shared Pop Art’s interest in the banal, the consumer society and the cheerful imagery of comics in bright attrac­tive colors.

Not least of all his work is also connected however with the aesthetic strate­gies of the coun­ter­cul­ture in Cali­fornia. An almost angry painting is revealed when Saul explores the Amer­ican dream. Here we find simul­ta­ne­ously over extrav­a­gant humor and playful yet harsh crit­i­cism of the system. For the first time in Europe the SCHIRN is presenting a compre­hen­sive overview of this great ”artist‘s artist“, who has received too scant atten­tion to date.

An exhi­bi­tion by SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANK­FURT in coop­er­a­tion with the Deich­tor­hal­len Hamburg / Samm­lung Falcken­berg