Colour and chaos: the pioneering pop art of Peter Saul

'Peter Saul: Pop, Funk, Bad Painting and more' is on show at Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, until 26 January. Featuring more than 90 works - some being exhibited for the first time - it includes some of his most unique and groundbreaking paintings, on topics like The Vietnam War, civil rights, the environment, junk food, and cigarettes.

Although father to the movement that spawned Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Saul was a leader not a follower, and his free-thinking, witty, and unconventional style was highly distinct from the mainstream of Pop Art, drawing the influence of abstract expressionist and surrealism along with cartoonish styles.

In the 1970s, he moved into interpretations of historical masterpieces such as Rembrandt’s Nightwatch and Picasso’s Guernica, and in the 1980s his style focused on ever more glamorous treatment of “low” subjects, heavily influenced by 19th-century painting.

A bilingual catalogue containing texts by John Yau, Annebelle Ténèze and by the artist himself will be published by Hatje Cantz in tandem with the exhibition. You can find out more at the Les Abattoirs website.