In this session we will focus on post-war and contemporary artists who challenge media imagery to persuade their audience in looking once more.

Starting with a comparison between British and American Pop artists, we will investigate how they perceived the boom of film, advertising and TV after the 1960s. When did the media-saturated world we live in today grow its foundations? How did artists then and now expose the unreliability of images and warn us of their power to mislead?  

Creating a dialogue between Gerhard Richter’s 1960s photo paintings, and Luc Tuymans’ recent realistic compositions, we will see how the mistrust of imagery has remained an important concern for artists since the second half of the 20th century.