CORY REYONLDS | DATE 5/23/2015

Pop Art Myths

"It is the Playboy 'Playmate of the month' pull-out pin-up which provides us with the closest contemporary equivalent of the odalisque in painting. Automobile body stylists have absorbed the symbolism of the space age more successfully than any artist. Social comment is left to TV and comic strip. Epic has been synonymous with a certain kind of film and the heroic archetype is now buried deep in movie lore. If the artist is not to lose much of his ancient purpose he may have to plunder the popular arts to recover the imagery which is his rightful inheritance." British Pop artist Richard Hamilton's 1961 statement is excerpted from Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza's excellent new survey, Pop Art Myths. "Man in Shower in Beverly HIlls" (1964), by Hamilton's compatriot David Hockney, is also reproduced from the book.