Pop Art Design

Photo: Andreas Sütterlin © Studio 65
Studio 65, Leonardo Sofa, 1969, Vitra Design Museum Collection

A central characteristic of Pop Art was the dialogue between design and art, which is explored in this comprehensive exhibition on the topic.

Pop Art is widely regarded as the most significant artistic movement since 1945. Reflecting on the cult of celebrity, commodity fetishism and media reproduction that permeated everyday life in the postwar era, Pop Art continues to shape our society's cultural self-understanding to this day.


Photo: Ursula Sprecher © Vitra (www.vitra.com)
Exterior Installation

Photo: Moderna Museet © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012 
James Rosenquist, I Love you with my Ford, 1961  Collection Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Photo © Vitra (www.vitra.com)
Studio 65, Capitello, Easy Chair, 1971 Collection Vitra Design Museum

Photo © Vitra (www.vitra.com) George Nelson
Marshmallow Sofa, 1956 Collection Vitra Design Museum

Photo © Superstudio Superstudio
Passiflora lamp, 1968 Collection Vitra Design Museum

Photo: © Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass, Superboxes, Cupboards, 1966  Courtesy of Studio Ettore Sottsass

Works by such artists as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein or Judy Chicago are paired with design objects by Charles Eames, George Nelson, Achille Castiglioni and Ettore Sottsass.


Photo:Ursula Sprecher © Vitra (www.vitra.com)
Installation Room 2

Photo:Ursula Sprecher © Vitra (www.vitra.com)
Installation Room 3

Photo: Ursula Sprecher © Vitra (www.vitra.com)
Installation Room 4
Photo: Ursula Sprecher © Vitra (www.vitra.com)
Installation Room 4

Pop Art's forerunners in the fine arts were closely linked with design. In the 1950s, many later Pop Art artists got their professional start in design, such as Andy Warhol who made a name for himself as a fashion illustrator and Robert Rauschenberg who worked as a window dresser.

The exhibition is supplemented with a multitude of further exhibits, such as album covers, magazines, films and photos of contemporary interiors. Fifty years after the official declaration of Pop Art in a conference at New York's Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition "Pop Art Design" thus paints a new picture of Pop Art - one that finally recognises the central role played by design.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 272-page catalogue with over 325 illustrations and essays by noted authors, including Thomas Kellein, Marco Livingstone, Steven Heller, Diedrich Diederichsen, Brigitte Felderer and Mathias Schwartz-Clauss, Curator, Vitra Design Museum.



Catalogue
Pop Art Design
Editor: Mateo Kries, Mathias Schwartz-Clauss
Vitra Design Museum