Pop Art Design

The Vitra Design Museum, in an ambitious project from both an historic and critical point of view, has for the first time placed the work of leading exponents of Pop Art — such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Roy Lichtenstein — alongside designs by Charles Eames, George Nelson, Achille Castiglioni, Ettore Sottsass and many other prominent designers of the 1960s and 70s for the purpose of taking a new perspective on Pop Art, in which design plays a key role. Pop Art Design is an itinerant exhibition that has been launched at the Weil am Rhein headquarters of the Vitra Design Museum and that will then travel to Humlebæk's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art at in Denmark and Stockholm's Moderna Museet in Sweden, two institutions that have also collaborated in the making of the exhibition through the loan of some important works.

The exhibition concept was developed by curator Mathias Schwartz-Clauss, who selected a series of objects from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum, from which an overall body of work of around 140 exhibits emerged. Half of these were works of art and half product designs, along with photographs, documents, texts and films.

Appearing in the exhibition are works such as an early screen by Warhol (1958, one of his first works), a target painting by Jasper Johns (1957), the Leonardo sofa, that has rarely appeared in an exhibition since its production, the Yellow Brushstroke by Roy Lichtenstein (1965), I Love You with My Ford by James Rosenquist (1961), the monumental Moloch lamp by Gaetano Pesce (1970-71) and the Chair by Allen Jones (1969).

The exhibition layout has been inspired by Richard Hamilton's 1956 collage Just What is It Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, today widely considered a symbol of Pop Art. The collage is a representation of a virtual space that brings together all the founding elements of the poetics of the time: the use of words, symbols of contemporary society, classic images used as icons, the pull of technology and popular cultures such as sport and cinema.

Inside the museum spaces built by Frank O. Gehry, a dialogue is developed between the art and design of the time, demonstrating how the two worlds were not only closely connected, but provided inspiration for each other. During those years, designers worked with tools that were typically used in art such as citation, collage and irony, while artists used industrialised and anonymous production processes. Moreover, everyday objects became artistic motifs, and new plastic materials were transformed into icons of everyday popular culture. Design demonstrates that the language of Pop Art was an unhinging element that enabled the development of a large part of the radical design of the 1970s, also represented well in the exhibition with pieces by Superstudio and Studio DA (Cesare Maria Casati and Emanuele Ponzio) with their renowned series of coloured lamps-pills.

The exhibition is accompanied by a full catalogue published by the Vitra Design Museum with over 325 images and texts by authors such as Thomas Kellein, Marco Livingstone, Steven Heller, Diedrich Diederichsen, Brigitte Felderer and Mathias Schwartz-Clauss.

Pop Art Design is well worth a visit, revealing a story that has never been told in detail. Here is a rare critical revelation by one of the leading museum institutions of contemporary design about one of the art currents that has most influenced the wider public: Pop Art — democratic, impetuous, and colourful —, can be considered one of the precursors to the constant image bombardment we experience today. Maria Cristina Didero

Through 3 February 2013
Pop Art Design
Vitra Design Museum
Charles-Eames-Straße 2, Weil am Rhein, Germany