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The Street, the Store, and the Silver Screen: Pop Art from the MCA Collection

Images

Andy Warhol, Troy Diptych, 1962. Silk-screen ink on synthetic polymer paint and graphite on linen; overall: 81 x 110 3/4 in. (205.7 x 281.3 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Mrs. Robert B. Mayer, 1984.1.a–b. © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights

Photo © MCA Chicago

Claes Oldenburg, Green Beans, 1964. Vinyl and acrylic on plaster; 18 parts, each: 2 x 11 3/4 x 5 in. (5.1 x 29.8 x 12.7 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Anne and William J. Hokin, 1996.5.a–r. © 1964 Claes Oldenburg

Photo: Joe Ziolkowski, © MCA Chicago

Ed Paschke, Casey, 1975. Oil on canvas; canvas: 48 x 20 in. (121.9 x 50.8 cm), framed: 48 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (123.2 x 52.1 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, bequest of Ruth S. Nath, 1998.16

Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Christo, Orange Store Front, 1964–65. Painted wood, Masonite, Plexiglas, galvanized metal, pegboard, fabric, and electric lights; 112 1/2 x 101 1/8 x 23 7/8 in. (285.8 x 256.8 x 60.6 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Natalie and Irving Forman, 1975.50

Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans II, 1969. Screen print on paper, edition 17 of 250; 35 x 23 in. (88.9 x 58.4 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Beatrice Cummings Mayer, 1991.89.1. © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo: Michal Raz-Russo, © MCA Chicago
A vivid painting depicts a bumpy and hairy purse that levitates above a slatted floor in front of a faded blue background.

Ed Paschke, Hair Bag, 1971. Oil on canvas; canvas: 34 x 20 in. (86.4 x 50.8 cm), framed: 34 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (87.6 x 52.1 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, bequest of Ruth S. Nath, 1998.17

Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Claes Oldenburg, Sculpture in the Form of a Fried Egg, 1966/71. Canvas, dyed cotton, and expanded polystyrene, unique; diameter: 122 in. (309.9 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Anne and William J. Hokin, 1986.65. © 1964 Claes Oldenburg

Photo © MCA Chicago

About

Conceived as a complementary exhibition to Pop Art Design, The Street, the Store, and the Silver Screen celebrates the MCA's holdings of seminal pop art. During the 1960s, many artists gravitated toward the brash colors, simplified designs, and direct salesmanship of the burgeoning commercial world and incorporated these same strategies into their fine art practices. Associated with the pop art movement, these artists shocked viewers by attacking the rarity, preciousness, and financial independence that traditionally embodied fine art. Today, however, these icons of pop art are recognized as reflecting a culture in transition, one that was beginning to fully embrace the capitalism and mass communication that characterizes global culture now.

The exhibition is organized around three separate themes that illustrate many artists' interests during the 1960s and 1970s: the bustling energy of the street, with its preening passersby, garish signage, and automobile-centric organization; the commercialism that supported and surrounded mass produced consumer products; and the allure of Hollywood glamour and celebrity. Drawn from the MCA Collection and a handful of local loans, these works reveal patterns and preoccupations that connect artists working in otherwise distinct styles and approaches. In the “Street” section, for instance, photo books by Ed Ruscha are presented with a concrete Cadillac in a collage by Wolf Vostell and a colorful streetwalker in a painting by Ed Paschke. In the “Store,” Andy Warhol's silk-screened “portraits” of Campbell's soup cans are joined by papier-mache sculptures of candy by Claes Oldenburg and a painting of an alluring female nude on top of a zebra by Mel Ramos, mimicking an often-used sales strategy in advertising. In the “Silver Screen,” we find glamour of various stripes, including 1950s heartthrob Troy Donahue in Andy Warhol's painting Troy Diptych and the underground siren pictured in Paschke's technicolor painting Elcina. The exhibition reveals the richness of the MCA's holdings in this area of art history as well as the continued relevance and fascination that pop art has for us today.

This exhibition is organized by James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

The exhibition is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on the museum’s fourth floor.

Funding

Lead support for The Street, the Store, and the Silver Screen: Pop Art from the MCA Collection is provided by Kenneth C. Griffin. Additional generous support is provided by the Goethe-Institut and the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Cari and Michael Sacks, Robert and Sheryl Bellick, Julie and Lawrence Bernstein, Anne and William Hokin, Melissa Weber and Jay Dandy, and Wright.