Pioneers of Pop at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle

Have you popped into the Hatton Gallery yet? We did just that recently, following its £3.8m redevelopment, to see the Pioneers in Pop exhibition. The first exhibition at The Hatton Gallery located on Newcastle University campus since it re-opened in October.

Pop Art

I love pop art. I had Roy Lichtenstein notebooks when I was a student, love Andy Warhol’s work, still have David Hockney prints on my wall and he inspired my A-level photography project too, and I check out Pop Art exhibitions whenever I can. We also had a lovely meal at The Collage restaurant in Durham earlier this year which is inspired by another British Pop Artist Peter Blake. Also, very fitting for us that Peter Blake's 'Beach Boys' is on display in the exhibition, after we saw Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds earlier this year in Newcastle too.

Pop Art and Newcastle

I knew London was instrumental in the development of this art movement, but I had no idea that Newcastle, my hometown was actually the birthplace of Pop Art. It is so lovely discovering new things about where you live.

A celebration of “mass media” images of advertising, magazines and movies, the colourful Pop Art scene emerged in the 50s - and this exhibition shows that it was the Geordies who invented Pop Art.

I discovered that although many people think Pop Art started in the USA in reality, a lot of the thinking and work behind it was happening in the UK, and in Newcastle. And Pioneers of Pop at the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University is a ground-breaking exhibition that aims to firmly – and correctly - position Newcastle as the birthplace of Pop Art.

To be honest I knew the Hatton Gallery existed and that it had been closed for nearly two years. But I was totally unaware of the unique role it has played in the development of British Art, with its history intimately entwined with some of the most influential artists of the 20th century. It also has diverse collection includes over 3,000 works from the 14th – 20th centuries with extensive archive material including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and textiles.

The Hatton Gallery

The Hatton Gallery on the Newcastle University campus in the centre of Newcastle. There are two entrances, one from the Kings Road and the other from the Quadrangle which is the oldest part of the University campus. It really is a beautiful building.

Pioneers of Pop at The Hatton Gallery

The exhibition Pioneers of Pop revolves around the numerous artists and writers, activities, projects and ideas which had at their centre the painter and collage artist Richard Hamilton, who taught at Newcastle University from 1953 to 1966 and is recognised as the “founder” of Pop Art. One of Hamiltons students was Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music

Pioneers of Pop includes around 100 works by some of the leading British artists associated with both Pop and abstract art - Eduardo Paolozzi, David Hockney, Richard Smith, Ian Stephenson, R.B Kitaj, Joe Tilson and Hamilton himself.

It was great to see artworks that I recognised alongside those from my hometown. I learnt a lot.

The gallery is now bright and airy. The exhibition itself is spread across three rooms. The gallery has automatic doors to take you from one room to another, and for this exhibition, photography was allowed as long as it wasn’t just of one piece of artwork (I did ask). In between two of the rooms, you’ll find the Merz Barn Wall too – a modernist masterpiece that was rescued and installed at the Hatton in 1965 - more of that later.

I didn’t know much about Richard Hamilton but his significant achievements in the North East include the ground-breaking exhibitions Man, Machine & Motion and an Exhibit, the development of a new Basic Design course of art teaching alongside Victor Pasmore, arranging the rescue of Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn Wall and the re-creation of Marcel Duchamp’s iconic sculpture Large Glass.

In 1957 Hamilton was talking about Pop Art, saying "Pop Art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business”. This is all the more remarkable when you realise that this pre-dates Andy Warhol’s first Pop Art creations of his iconic Campbell’s soup can and Marilyn Monroe diptych by five years!

For almost one hundred years, the Hatton Gallery has been a major cultural resource, important not only for the North East but also nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, it had become tired and no longer fit for purpose. 

Fortunately, The Hatton Gallery has now been transformed into a vibrant and modern exhibition space and hopefully, it will resume its rightful place as a significant gallery of modern and contemporary art. I'm looking forward to seeing many more exhibitions here in the future.

Merz Barn Wall by Kurt Schwitters

Pioneers of Pop is only displayed until January 20, 2018, however, now on permanent display with new interpretation is the iconic Merz Barn Wall by Kurt Schwitters, one of the most significant figures in 20th-century art. The wall was brought to the gallery in 1965 and incorporated into the fabric of the building. The Merz Barn Wall is part of a construction created by German artist Kurt Schwitters in a Lake District barn in 1947-8. The Elterwater Merz Barn was based on the idea of collage, in which found items are incorporated into an artwork.

The Hatton Gallery is free to visit and is open Monday to Saturday between10am and 5pm, but it will be closed from 24 December 2017 - 7 January 2018.

Which art genre is your favourite?

Deb x

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