10.08 Pop Departures: Shocked Many, but Inspired Even More
In the 1960s, art for the first time embraced the brash world of commercial culture, advertising, and mass media—images of shiny newness, youth, and seduction. Pop art electrified artists, audiences, and critics alike. It changed our understanding of art, and the ripple effects of its seismic shift are still felt today.
This Fall, re-live the pop revolution at the Seattle Art Museum.
Pop Departures presents the bold visions of American Pop artists, including the works of icons such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, and Claes Oldenburg. Opening Thursday, October 9th. This exhibit investigates how artists in subsequent decades have continued to critically engage with and redefine consumer culture and the cult of celebrity.
Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. With pop art, consumerism and the image culture surrounding it were put on bold display, and many artists rebelled against traditional notions of artistic style through their retooling and imitation of commercial printing techniques.
Perhaps no artist is better known for his manipulations of the subtleties of marketing and the projection of desire than Andy Warhol. In the late 1950’s, Warhol created magazine illustrations for the upper echelon of New York society and gained experience in decorating shop windows. He was already celebrated as a highly successful illustrator before launching himself as Warhol the artist, celebrity, filmmaker, director, impresario, publisher, and self-styled pop icon.
The exhibition takes us beyond the pioneers of Pop and to the work of subsequent generations of artists for whom Pop art has been an inspiration or a vehicle for critique. See works from the 1980s and ’90s by artists such as Lynn Hershman Leeson, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, and Richard Prince. Continue with work made in the era of digital markets and social media by Margarita Cabrera, Josephine Meckseper, and Ryan Trecartin—contemporary artists who use Pop as a point of departure.
Pop art changed the way we consume media and redefined as a part of our market economy. What some considered a fad that would soon fade away became one of the most enduring artistic legacies of the last fifty years and its effects are still felt today. Pop Departures will blow open your notions of Pop and take you on a journey through the last 50 years of American popular culture.
If you plan on attending…
On view October 9, 2014 through January 11, 2015,
Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Avenue. Seattle, WA 98101
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
10 a.m.-9 p.m. on Thursday
Closed on Monday & Tuesday
Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Avenue. Seattle, WA 98101
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
10 a.m.-9 p.m. on Thursday
Closed on Monday & Tuesday
The Seattle Art Museum is located at the corner of 1st Avenue and Union Street, one block south of Pike Place Market. Park for up to four hours for just $6 at the 34d and steward Garage. Request a discount voucher at the SAM Ticketing Desk to use as you leave the garage. The garage is about four blocks from the Seattle Art Museum’s 1st and Union Street entrance – enter on Stewart street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. On weekends only, the same offer applies at the Russell Investment Center Garage under the Seattle Art Museum.
For more information visit: www.seattleartmuseum.org.
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Until next time!
