Damien Hirst's Beautiful Grinch (with Butterflies), 2007 at Andipa
The Art That Defined an Era: From the 1990s to Pop Art
Two major exhibitions opening this October invite a fresh look at the artists and cultural movements that reshaped how we see the world. At Tate Britain, The 90s: Art & Fashion revisits a decade of creative experimentation in Britain, while New York's Whitney Museum of American Art presents Roy Lichtenstein: Like New, reconsidering the legacy of one of Pop Art's most influential figures. Though separated by geography and generation, both exhibitions explore a lasting question: how does art transform the images, ideas and visual culture of its time?
Britain in the 1990s: Art, fashion and cultural change
Opened on 8 October 2026, The 90s: Art & Fashion at Tate Britain explores a period when artistic practice, fashion, photography, music and nightlife became increasingly intertwined. Guest-curated by Edward Enninful OBE, the exhibition brings together nearly 70 artists, photographers and designers, with more than 100 photographs, paintings, sculptures and garments. Its ambition is to revisit a decade whose creative energy helped redefine Britain's cultural identity.
The 1990s were marked by a spirit of experimentation. In the wake of economic uncertainty, a new generation of creatives challenged established conventions, embraced unconventional materials and subjects, and questioned the boundaries between high art and popular culture. The rise of the Young British Artists (YBAs) became emblematic of this moment, bringing contemporary British art to wider public attention through work that was often provocative, direct and difficult to ignore.
Damien Hirst is among the artists featured in the exhibition. His practice, which confronted themes of mortality, beauty and the relationship between art and commerce, became central to the decade's debates about what contemporary art could be. Alongside Hirst, the exhibition places artistic practice within a wider cultural landscape shaped by designers such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, photographers including Juergen Teller, and figures whose work crossed traditional creative disciplines.
What makes the period particularly compelling is the dialogue between these different fields. Fashion became a vehicle for artistic expression; photography shaped the public image of a generation; and galleries, magazines, clubs and runways became interconnected spaces in which new ideas circulated. The exhibition considers not only the decade's celebrated creative figures, but also the broader social and cultural forces that informed their work.
Its significance extends beyond nostalgia. Revisiting the 1990s offers an opportunity to consider how artists and designers responded to their moment, and how their visual language continues to influence contemporary culture. The exhibition is on view at Tate Britain until 14 February 2027.
Roy Lichtenstein: Making the familiar new
Opening to the public on 11 October 2026, Roy Lichtenstein: Like New at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York offers the first major Lichtenstein retrospective in the city since 1993. Bringing together approximately 130 works spanning the 1940s to the 1990s, the exhibition examines an artist whose distinctive visual language transformed the relationship between fine art and mass-produced imagery.
Lichtenstein emerged as a defining figure of American Pop Art in the early 1960s. Drawing inspiration from comic strips, advertisements, commercial printing and everyday visual culture, he enlarged and reworked familiar images into meticulously composed paintings. Bold outlines, primary colours and Ben-Day dots became hallmarks of his style, lending his work the appearance of mechanical reproduction while revealing the precision of his hand.
Yet Lichtenstein's achievement extended beyond the appropriation of popular imagery. His work posed questions about originality, authorship and the ways images acquire meaning through repetition and context. By translating the visual language of comics and advertising onto the canvas, he challenged conventional distinctions between popular and high culture, prompting viewers to reconsider what deserved the status of art.
Like New looks beyond the familiar icons to explore the ideas underpinning his practice. Alongside celebrated paintings, it includes drawings, collages, prints, sculptures and films, tracing his sustained interest in perception, duplication and the construction of images. The exhibition also features recreated murals, including a nearly 96-foot-long version of Greene Street Mural (1983), and reunites works from his landmark 1962 exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery.
The exhibition's title feels especially apt today. In a culture saturated with digital images, where photographs are endlessly cropped, filtered, reproduced and circulated, Lichtenstein's explorations of how images change through repetition seem remarkably prescient. His work reminds us that an image is never entirely fixed: its meaning shifts according to how it is presented, encountered and understood. The exhibition runs until 10 May 2027.
Two exhibitions, a lasting influence
Although The 90s: Art & Fashion and Roy Lichtenstein: Like New examine different periods and artistic traditions, both reveal how profoundly art is shaped by the visual culture around it. The former revisits a decade when fashion, photography and contemporary art converged to redefine British cultural identity; the latter examines an artist who transformed the imagery of everyday life into a new language for modern painting.
Both also invite reflection on the relationship between artistic innovation and cultural recognition. Artists such as Hirst and Lichtenstein challenged established hierarchies, drawing on imagery and ideas that existed beyond the traditional boundaries of fine art. Their work helped expand the possibilities of artistic expression, influencing how subsequent generations approach images, materials and popular culture.
For collectors, these exhibitions offer an opportunity to reconsider the legacies of artists whose work continues to shape contemporary visual culture. They demonstrate that an artist's significance lies not simply in an instantly recognisable style, but in the ideas behind it, the conventions it challenges and its capacity to remain relevant across generations.
From the restless experimentation of 1990s Britain to Lichtenstein's incisive examination of mass imagery, both exhibitions celebrate art's ability to reflect its time while changing how we understand it.
Exhibitions to visit:
The 90s: Art & Fashion
Tate Britain, London
8 October 2026 – 14 February 2027
Roy Lichtenstein: Like New
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
11 October 2026 – 10 May 2027
