American Art 1940 to today

Prior to the 1980s, the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection focused primarily on European avant-garde art. This changed in 1986, when, to mark the company’s 100th birthday, Andy Warhol was commissioned to create the series of pictures entitled CARS. The collection has since been far more open to American contemporary art.  The collection has substantially concerned itself with tracing two aspects of American contemporary art in particular: various strands of abstract art, minimalist art and reduced art in the time period from the 1950s to the present day on the one hand, and aspects of Pop Art, conceptual art and institutional critical trends on the other.

The show focuses on Andy Warhol and Pop Art related artists through conceptual positions of the 1970s/80s, further to Peter Halley and artistic trends of the 1990s up to recent contemporary artists.