Sun-Man-Face II
- Artist: Imre Bak
- Date: 1976
- Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas
- Dimensions: object, each (Left panel): 2200 × 1502 × 21 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Sun‑Man‑Face II” by Imre Bak. Created in 1976, it stretches across two canvases, each roughly 2.2 metres wide by 1.5 metres high. The work is a riot of acrylic colour that turns the image into a pop‑culture icon. Bak, who lived from 1939 to 2022, often used bold, flat shapes to comment on the media’s spectacle. Here the sun‑like face blares out, a visual shout‑out to the media networks that the “Beyond Pop” show wanted to explore. You can see how the bright hues contrast with the flat, almost cartoonish forms – a nod to the pop‑art movement while maintaining his own surreal edge. The panels sit side by side, almost like a comic strip, inviting viewers to step into the absurdity of late‑70s visual culture. It was acquired with support from the Acquisitions Fund for Russian Art and the V‑A‑C Foundation, and it now sits on the fourth floor of Tate Modern, ready to spark conversation.
See it in person
Sun-Man-Face II is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
