A decade after World War II, a new culture was emerging, one in which waves of products targeted at a growing class of consumers were advertised on TV, in magazines and newspapers, and on larger-than-life billboards. Artists around the world were inspired by this explosion of mass media and began to use it as source material, repurposing commercial images and depicting familiar subjects, from everyday objects to the stars and stories that populated the front page. Yet there was no single approach: artists both celebrated and criticized the era’s surge of consumerism. In 1957, the British artist Richard Hamilton tried to summarize these new tendencies by coining the term “Pop Art,” describing it to friends as “Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business.”
Collection 1940s–1970s
412
From Soup Cans to Flying Saucers
412
From Soup Cans to Flying Saucers
- MoMA, Floor 4, 412 The David Geffen Wing
-
Vija Celmins Bikini 1968 -
William Copley Think 1961 -
Allan D'Arcangelo U.S. Highway 1, Number 5 1962 -
Rosalyn Drexler Hold your Fire (Men and Machines) 1966 -
Richard Hamilton Guggenheim (black) 1970 -
Yayoi Kusama Accumulation No. 1 1962 -
Ketty La Rocca It Is Easy to Have Top Brand Gifts (È facile avere regali di gran marca) 1964–65 -
Ketty La Rocca Us and Those Who (Noi e chi ci) 1964–65 -
Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl 1963 -
Claes Oldenburg Giant Soft Fan 1966-67 -
Michelangelo Pistoletto Man with Yellow Pants 1964 -
Sigmar Polke Flying Saucers (Fliegende Untertassen) 1966 -
Gerhard Richter Dead 1963 -
James Rosenquist Doorstop 1963 -
Edward Ruscha OOF 1962 (reworked 1963) -
Keiichi Tanaami Untitled (Collage Book 2_13) c. 1969 -
Hervé Télémaque No Title (The Ugly American) 1962/64 -
Wolf Vostell B 52 Lipstick Bomber 1968 -
Andy Warhol Gold Marilyn Monroe 1962 -
Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Cans 1962 -
Idelle Weber Untitled 1968–1970
Artists
-
Gerhard Richter
German, born 193255 exhibitions, 138 works online -
Claes Oldenburg
American, born Sweden 1929122 exhibitions, 101 works online -
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Italian, born 193318 exhibitions, 4 works online -
James Rosenquist
American, 1933–201782 exhibitions, 104 works online -
Allan D'Arcangelo
American, 1930–199825 exhibitions, 34 works online - There are 19 artists in this collection gallery online.
Installation images
In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.
If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research-and-learning/circulating-film.
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].