Check out the extravagance from the past to the present that hits London by means of Jeff Koons with his Popeye series (left) at the Serpentine Gallery and Baroque: Style In The Age of Magnificence (right) at the V&A. Koon's glorification of American consumer-culture through highly-polished painting and sculpture ties neatly with the coveted style from the eighteenth-century that encompassed not only art, but architecture, design and society: a way of life. South Kensington can pay claim this month to housing the best collection of art work in the world, and at a time of recession this is no mean feat. It is precisely this triumph that bares stronger weight than the art work itself. This is not just Pop Art - it's Pop Art made by one of the world's highest-paid living artists - a personality of the twentieth-century that parallels the greats as Rubens and Bernini 300 years ago with their rare works on display. It is too easy to treat these movements as superficial expressionism and what better way to realize this than to see it, past the façade, with your very own eyes. Enjoy.
