Modern Art Goes Pop: W&L's University Collections of Art and History

Modern Art Goes Pop: Selections from W&L's University Collections of Art and History

November 7 - December 9, 2016

Wilson Hall/Staniar Gallery

This exhibition showcases two distinct artistic styles that emerged after WWII in Europe and the United States: Hard-edge Abstraction and Pop Art.  Like earlier Abstract Expressionists, Hard-edge artists such as Frank Stella removed recognizable subject matter from their work, but also rejected dynamic brushstrokes in favor of mechanical precision, pattern, and bold blocks of color.  Pop Art developed in the late 1950s when European "New realism', which emphasized elements of mass culture, spread to the U.S.  There, artists like Robert Indiana and Andy Warhol found inspiration in the mundane and ordinary - as Warhol said, "all the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried not to notice at all".  This exhibition, drawn from the University's Collection of Art and History, explores the points at which these two major twentieth-century art movements intersected and diverged, as well as their continuing legacies. 

Lecture & Reception:

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

5:30 p.m.

Wilson Hall/Concert Hall and Lykes Atrium

No tickets are required.