CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/11/2015

German Pop

Bettina von Arnim's "Close Cycle Man" (1969) is reproduced from German Pop, the catalogue to Schirn Kunsthalle's critically acclaimed exhibition, which closed this week in Frankfurt. Essayist Martina Weinhart writes, "American Pop comes across as cool, crisply fresh, aggressive, glamorous, self-confident, and unfailingly optimistic. British Pop is closer to traditional art. Like German Pop, it emerged against the backdrop of the destruction of the war and of the resulting social upheaval. This raises the question of what was specifically German about German Pop. The structural difference between European and American Pop Art, which is ultimately founded in cultural history, has often been pointed out: 'In essence, for Europe, for European intellectuals, consumer society is something that emerged when they were already mature.' For Americans, by contrast, consumer society was pure nature. 'Accordingly, the attitude of American artists toward such objects is absolutely different: they can love them and hate them at the same time.' Without a doubt, German Pop is part of a long art historical tradition that extends back even beyond the legacy of Dada. It is equally beyond doubt that it was in no way an epigonic mimicry of Uncle Sam." German Pop is one of Dan Nadel's picks for Best Books of 2015.