Pop! American Art in the 1960s

"The pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a split second—comics, picnic tables, men’s trousers, celebrities, shower curtains, refrigerators, Coke bottles. All the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried not to notice at all." —Andy Warhol, 1968

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a group of artists pioneered a new style that radically departed from the dominant movements of the post-World War II years. Rejecting Abstract Expressionism’s introspection and Minimalism’s formal rigor, they sought a bold visual language that was accessible to all and that reflected the everyday world around them. In vibrant, eye-catching images of soup cans, street signs, and postcard sunsets, Pop Art was born.

With wry humor, Pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jim Dine broke from traditional artistic hierarchies by embracing the slick aesthetic of advertising, television, billboards, print media, shop windows, and comic strips to create works that celebrated and critiqued the country’s booming postwar consumer culture. Pop! American Art in the 1960s showcases some of the era’s most iconic artists and images, capturing the movement’s irreverent spirit and lasting impact on how we experience art and the everyday in America.

Drawn from the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Ulrich Museum of Art through Art Bridges’ Partner Loan Network, this installation is the third in a series of long-term loans from significant American art collections nationwide.