In a dazzling homage to the vibrant intersection of popular culture and high art, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has opened its latest show, “Signs and Objects: Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection.” Curated by Lauren Hinkson and Joan Young, this exhibition invites you to explore the colorful, ironic, and often provocative world of Pop Art, a movement that dramatically reshaped the landscape of contemporary art in the post–World War II era.
Opened this month, running through September 15, 2024, “Signs and Objects” presents a carefully selected array of over 40 works by seminal figures of the Pop Art movement, including Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol, among others. These artists, driven by the booming economic vitality and the explosion of consumerist culture in America, sought inspiration in the everyday: advertisements, comic strips, magazines, and the bustling neon life of the city streets. Their work, characterized by a cool detachment and a bold, often satirical engagement with popular culture, marked a definitive departure from the abstract expressionism that had dominated the previous generation.
Andy Warhol b. 1928, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, d. 1987, New York Orange Disaster #5, 1963 Acrylic, … [+] silkscreen ink, and graphite on canvas 269.2 × 207 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, Harry N. Abrams Family Collection 74.2118
This exhibition is not merely a retrospective but a dynamic conversation between past and present, featuring contemporary pieces that trace the enduring legacy of Pop Art. It invites you to consider the movement’s ongoing influence on artists today who continue to critique and engage with the themes of consumerism, mass media, and the commodification of culture.
Signs and Objects. Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim’s relationship with Pop Art dates back to the early 1960s, notably with the groundbreaking 1963 exhibition “Six Painters and the Object,” which provided crucial institutional validation for the movement. “Signs and Objects” pays homage to this history, even borrowing its title from Lawrence Alloway’s original concept for that seminal show. Alloway, a British critic and curator who coined the term “Pop art,” played a pivotal role in the movement’s acceptance and understanding.
Claes Oldenburg & Coos Van Bruggen, Soft Shuttlecock, 1995
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
!function(n) if(!window.cnxps) window.cnxps=,window.cnxps.cmd=[]; var t=n.createElement(‘iframe’); t.display=’none’,t.onload=function() var n=t.contentWindow.document,c=n.createElement(‘script’); c.src=’//cd.connatix.com/connatix.playspace.js’,c.setAttribute(‘defer’,’1′),c.setAttribute(‘type’,’text/javascript’),n.body.appendChild(c) ,n.head.appendChild(t) (document);
(function() function createUniqueId() return ‘xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx’.replace(/[xy]/g, function(c) 0, v = c == ‘x’ ? r : (r & 0x3 ); const randId = createUniqueId(); document.getElementsByClassName(‘fbs-cnx’)[0].setAttribute(‘id’, randId); document.getElementById(randId).removeAttribute(‘class’); (new Image()).src = ‘https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=18a8b009-3301-48b4-9c55-ce42f76c864d’; cnxps.cmd.push(function () cnxps( playerId: ’18a8b009-3301-48b4-9c55-ce42f76c864d’, storyId: ‘9f32d18b-781c-4923-8df6-0290cf76bd46’).render(randId); ); )();
Among the highlights of the exhibition is Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s “Soft Shuttlecock” (1995), a monumental installation that playfully challenges the Guggenheim’s architectural grandeur. This piece, along with others in the show, underscores the museum’s role not just as a custodian of culture but as a space for recreation, entertainment, and critical reflection.
This show also extends its gaze beyond the American and British origins of Pop Art, showcasing works by artists from diverse backgrounds. This global perspective reveals how themes of consumerism and mass media resonate across different cultures, highlighting the universal language of Pop Art.
In addition to the visual feast, the exhibition is complemented by the Didaktika project. This educational initiative offers you a deeper understanding of the artistic materials and processes used by Pop artists, reflecting on consumerism’s impact on society and the environment. Interactive elements and digital content enrich the visitor experience, fostering a dialogue between the art of the 1960s and contemporary concerns about sustainability and consumer culture.
b. 1960, Padua, Italy Daddy, Daddy, 2008 by Maurizio Cattelan Polyurethane resin, paint, and steel … [+] Edition 1/1 37.5 × 97.8 × 87.6 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Anonymous gift 2012.3
“Signs and Objects: Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection” is different from the usual art exhibitions you’ll see; it’s a celebration of a movement that continues to challenge, amuse, and inspire. Through its blend of historical depth and contemporary insight, the show captures a spirit that remains as relevant and rebellious today as it was half a century ago.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
