"Pop Impact - From Johns to Warhol"
2001-04-29 until 2001-07-01
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis, IN, USA

Pop Impact! From Johns to Warhol features Pop Art and Proto-Pop works by Johns, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Rauschenburg, Rosenquist, Warhol and other giants of the contemporary American art scene. All of the works are drawn from the collection of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art.

Considered controversial when it first emerged in the 1950s and 60s, Pop Art broke the rules by shunning abstraction in general and returning to recognizable subject matter, yet the subjects Pop artists chose—Coke bottles, billboard beauties and fast food—were outlandishly commonplace. Leaders of the movement recognized that consumerism was becoming America’s way of life, thanks to mass production. Many Pop artists turned to the techniques of advertising to represent this highly standardized way of life, often eliminating evidence of handmade quality from their artworks.

In addition, the scale of Pop Art was ironic. As subject matter became more trivial, artworks became increasingly monumental. Writers used analogies like mattress-sized Popsicles or hamburgers the size of Volkswagens to help readers understand the paradoxical new works.

Highlights of Pop Impact! include Oldenburg’s SUV-sized sculpture Ice Bag-Scale C., Segal’s sculpture Walk, Don’t Run and Rosenquist’s U-Haul-It.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Indiana

Other Important Exhibitions in Indianapolis