The
Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York presents
Pop and Op (February 17-May 4, 2008). The exhibition of mid-20th-century American art explores the two movements from the post-World War II era through the 1970s.
The works of Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) and Jasper Johns (b. 1930) presaged the development of Pop art with its iconic representations of popular culture. Its proponents, among them Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) and James Rosenquist (b. 1933), were increasingly influenced by advertising, promotion and mass production. As a result, Pop art came to be regarded as an accessible expression of international Modernism.
Op art employed new technologies to create works that reflected aspects of everyday life (e.g., consumer objects, fashion and interior design). Artists such as Victor Vasarely (1908-1997), Julian Stanczak (b. 1928) and Bridget Riley (b. 1931), also represented in the NCMA's exhibition, used intense color and severe geometric designs to produce spatial illusions and suggest movement in their compositions.
