In 1963, the University of Michigan Museum of Art hosted two pioneering exhibitions of Pop Art. At that time the concept of Pop Art was under construction, and its subjects—consumer culture, food and other appetites, technology and the mass media, the Cold War, women’s roles—were live issues at the university. This program showcases artists whose work was too raw or unusual to become part of the later art-world canon, revising historical understanding of the early 1960s and opening a window into creative life at the university.

Throughout the program, digital reproductions of works from the 1963 exhibitions and related works on paper will be on display in the Commons and in the cases outside Stern Auditorium.

THIS VIDEO: Professor Rebecca Zurier (University of Michigan) will open the event by exploring the origins of the 1963 Pop Art exhibition. The art historian Michael Lobel (Hunter College) will speak on "Defining Pop: Exhibitions, Circulation, and the Makings of an Art Movement," and David McCarthy (Rhodes College) will discuss "Peter Saul Against Pop Art."

This Bicentennial LSA Theme Semester event is presented with support from the Bicentennial Office; College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies; History; History of Art; Institute for the Humanities; Office of Research; Rackham Graduate School; and University of Michigan Museum of Art.