Beginning with World War II and well into the 1960s, the United States experienced a period of rapid economic boom, which gave rise to a growing culture of consumerism. Some artists responded to the commercialism that surrounded them by incorporating images from mass culture into their work and adopting new techniques in their creations that imitated (or parodied) industrial methods. These works, belonging to the so-called Pop Art, have as their source cheap magazines, billboards, advertisements, films, television and comic strips. Artists rejected the spontaneity of gesture characteristic of New York School aesthetics and created work that reflected the impersonal logic of commercial printing and mass production.
In addition to historical pieces, the exhibition will include a selection of new work by contemporary artists who explore the legacy of pop and use its forms and vocabularies to critique and politicize issues, such as the language of consumerism.