The first large-scale exhibition of Pop Art was held at New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 1963, featuring works by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.
Astonishment reigned at paintings of Campbell’s Soup cans and of dollar bills, very realistically rendered by silk screen process, and of large blow-ups of frames from comic strip cartoons, including even their “thought balloons” – The former by Andy Warhol, the latter by Roy Lichtenstein.
Collectors and the public alike rapidly became fascinated with Pop Art’s representation of everyday objects of life, including advertisements, commercial packaging, electrical appliances, and comic strips.
Artists like Warhol (himself a former commercial artist), John, Tom Wesselmann and Lichtenstein all simultaneously celebrated and sent up the all-pervasive culture of consumerism, blurring the distinction between commercial art and ‘high’ art.
Related Posts
Space Dust Nobody ate Space Dust because it tasted nice. In fact, most people probably couldn't tell you what it tasted like. It wasn't…
Boombox/Ghetto Blaster A boombox (or Ghetto Blaster) - basically a large but portable cassette player with two or more loudspeakers - was…
Haight-Ashbury While Swinging London vibrated to the Mod sound of The Who and The Small Faces, an entirely different youth scene had developed half a world…
Groupies Once upon a time, there were girls (and occasionally guys) who took pride in the mere act of bedding rock…
Astonishment reigned at paintings of Campbell’s Soup cans and of dollar bills, very realistically rendered by silk screen process, and of large blow-ups of frames from comic strip cartoons, including even their “thought balloons” – The former by Andy Warhol, the latter by Roy Lichtenstein.
