Moco Museum London
Moco Museum is impossible to miss. The windows of the 1920s building are covered in bright pink vinyl emblazoned with the museum’s name and the artists they show. Inside there are paintings, sculptures, videos, installations, digital artworks with glossy finishes and flat surfaces that shine, reflect, or flash. Organ music is played through the gallery speakers, signalling that the viewer has entered a sacred place. But what exactly is being worshipped here?
Given the name Modern Contemporary, one might expect a broad selection of work from the modern and contemporary periods. That expectation is met only in part. What Moco presents is American Pop Art, its contemporary derivatives, a few of the Young British Artists, NFTs, street art, immersive installations, and a mix of other works in a similar vein. The only ‘Modern’ artwork is a single picture by Picasso, one of the few in the show made by the artist’s own hand using traditional media.
Some of the works on display are good and interesting, but they appear to have been selected for their immediacy, not for their content. Context is dissolved under the pressure to entertain: Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room matters only for its selfie potential, Tom Wesselmann’s paintings are reduced to decoration, and Jean-Michel Basquiat is included because he is Basquiat. Artists are introduced as, “… is one of the most influential artists of”, or “…best known as a leading figure…” This emphasis on the public status of the artist, disconnected with the work, unintentionally mirrors the practices of certain contemporary artists – also in this exhibition – like Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst, who embraced branding, spectacle, and the figure of the artist as a celebrity and entrepreneur, with a somewhat satirical stance.
Pop Art emerged in the 1950s and ’60s as a response to the elitism of high art, integrating the imagery of everyday life – advertising, celebrities, packaging – into its visual language. It was provocative and critical, and used mass culture to question the systems of making and consuming art. Andy Warhol was the movement’s most influential figure, who turned the artist into a brand and the making into a factory, and in doing so, he critiqued celebrity and commodification itself.
The problem is that Moco strips away Pop Art’s original critique. There is no criticism or irony here, on the contrary, Moco positions itself as a purveyor of authenticity as if the value of art lies not in critical thought or historical understanding, but in how effectively it can be felt, photographed, and shared. ‘Radical Honesty’ is the temporary exhibition by the pop star Robbie Williams, for whom “honesty” is to present digitally printed paintings that resemble early MS Paint experiments, sprinkled with diaristic confessions full of spelling mistakes.
Moco offers the illusion of engagement. Visitors are not encountering art so much as an idea of art and artists. Art can be difficult and demanding, and that is what gives it depth. Not everyone has to understand it straight away and certainly not like it, and that, too, is part of the experience. The museum claims to make art accessible, especially to younger audiences, yet it charges £25 per ticket. Leading institutions like the Tate or the National Gallery are free and charge less for their temporary exhibitions.
London Art Walk understands that art is complex. Through its guided tours and editorial content, LAW encourages engagement with art exhibitions that invite viewers to look, ask questions, and form their own responses, rather than settling for surface-level impressions: it offers haut cuisine, not expensively packaged fast food.
Ana Teles for London Art Walk
May 2025