The Aesthetic Charge of the Everyday
Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004), study for Mouth #10, 1967, liquitex over graphite underdrawing, 47 x 42.4 cm. MMFA, gift of Tom Wesselmann Estate. © Estate of Tom Wesselmann / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / CARCC Ottawa 2024. Photo MMFA
On view until July 2024, the exhibition The Pop of Life! showcases both iconic and rarely or never-shown works of Pop art from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’s collection. The ensemble features installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints by artists from Quebec, Canada, the United States and abroad, juxtaposed with objects from the decorative arts and design collection.
Iris Amizlev
In 1957, one of the founders of the movement, British artist Richard Hamilton defined Pop as:
“Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low-Cost, Mass-Produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business.”1
Originating in Britain and the United States during the mid- to late 1950s, Pop art peaked in the 1960s and continued to flourish internationally, including in Quebec and Canada, throughout the 1970s. This period of great political, economic, cultural, and social reform gave rise to a sensorially dynamic urban experience, owing to the pervasion of commercialism, technology, media and mass production.
Pop artists drew inspiration from these forces and – in what was a simultaneous celebration and critique of their external reality – pioneered a radical new art form. The Pop movement was revolutionary on several levels. First, it championed a transformative mindset that challenged reified notions of what art can be; an influence that continues to be felt today. The sourcing of subject matter from popular culture was another way in which the movement broke ground, as this approach blurred the established boundaries between high and low art. Pop also triggered a formal revolution in its characteristic use of, among other things, bright colours, linearity, flatness, cropping, large scale, glossy surfaces, text, and work in series and multiples; all of which was afforded by commercial printing techniques. This use of methods that simulated the mass media, be it in print or on television, furthered the melding of high and low art.
The visual bombardment and pulsing energy of the urban landscape comes through in Pop art’s far-reaching subject matter, which includes everyday objects, brand-name products, current events, celebrities, and a wide array of female archetypes, ranging from mothers and housewives to comic-book heroines and sex objects cropped and displayed for consumption. These quintessential Pop art themes are illustrated in the various sections of The Pop of Life! and described below.
Venus, Vixens, Virtues
Male Pop artists objectified the female figure to an overwhelming degree. Quebec creator Gilles Boisvert, for example, drew richly from the classical tradition of rendering the female form. Boisvert’s works are typical of Pop in their bold and glossy colours, sharp outlines, and flat surfaces. The objectified sexuality they depict reflects the sexual revolution that coincided with the advent of the birth control pill and the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s. Similarly, in Study for Mouth #10 (top of page), Tom Wesselmann’s use of cropping to draw focus to a woman’s open mouth with bright red lips and an exposed tongue also evokes eroticism, while its anonymity erases her humanity. Sensibilities have since evolved, and such widespread use in the media and art of these tropes of women’s bodies as things to be consumed are now being confronted and questioned.
Gilles Boisvert (born in 1940), Woman, from the album “Les oiseaux,” 1972, silkscreen, 3/25. MMFA, purchase, Saidye and Samuel Bronfman Collection of Canadian Art. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
Shop, Shop, Shop
Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi’s attraction to popular culture, technology and the glamour of American consumerism is encapsulated in “Bunk,” a series of collages he worked on between about 1947 and 1952, some of which he later made into prints, in 1972. The printed materials he used to form his dynamic compositions were sourced from the magazines and pulp fiction novels passed on to him by American soldiers stationed in Paris after the Second World War. In its creation of high art from a combination of vernacular subjects, Paolozzi’s “Bunk” series was a precursor to the Pop art movement. The prints contain elements of the themes presented in The Pop of Life!, including ads for consumer products, a variety of women figures, cartoon characters, and other popular culture imagery.
Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), Refreshing and Delicious, from the album “Bunk,” 1972, after a collage of about 1947-1952, photolithograph, collage, 92/100. MMFA, gift of the artist. © Trustees of Paolozzi Foundation, licensed by ADAGP / CARCC Ottawa 2023. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
In his series “Vitrines,” Michel Leclair reproduces storefront displays that could be seen in Montreal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood in the 1970s. Product and signage are condensed into the print comprising a row of bags of Prince Edward Island potatoes and Coca-Cola® logos. The incorporation of text like “FRAIS” [fresh] and “PRIX SPÉCIAUX” [low prices] not only recreates the language typically used to attract customers, it makes the subject matter easily relatable. Capped off by its playful title, “Fries with Gravy, and a Coke,” the work is a witty comment on consumerism and a nod to Quebec popular culture.
Michel Leclair (born in 1948), “Fries with Gravy, and a Coke!” 1974, silkscreen, 13/40. MMFA, purchase, Saidye and Samuel Bronfman Collection of Canadian Art. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
Ordinary Things
Pierre Ayot was known for his instrumental involvement in the revival of printmaking practices in Montreal as the founder of the artist-run centre Atelier libre 848, in 1966 (now Atelier Graff). His recurring representations of consumer brands and everyday objects using the formal traits of Pop strongly associated him with the movement, as did his exploration of the role of advertising and consumerism in society. Pollo allo spiedo is the epitome of a mundane object being used in the service of art. Inside the found object of a stove, Ayot humorously presents a two-hour looped video of a chicken cooking in real time.
Pierre Ayot (1943-1995), Pollo allo spiedo, 1985, stove, silent colour video, running time: 121 min 56 s. Gift of Madeleine Forcier. © Estate of Pierre Ayot / CARCC 2023. Photo MMFA, Christine Guest
Political Punches
Current events were disseminated along all forms of the media. Richard Hamilton’s Kent State shows a Kent State University student who was wounded during a demonstration held on May 4, 1970, to protest the United States’ involvement in the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. In this historic event, members of the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students and wounded nine others. This unedited image of a photographed television screen taken during a broadcast about the shootings, was used to memorialize the shocking incident.
Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), Kent State, 1970, silkscreen, 2,146/5,000. MMFA, gift of Barbara and Mehran Asgary and family. © Estate of Richard Hamilton / Artist rights society (ARS), NY / CARCC Ottawa 2023. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
Plastic Blitz
Technological developments in the chemical industry gave rise to the production of new types of plastics and ways of manufacturing objects for mass consumption. Designers and artists alike experimented with newly invented and inexpensive materials such as foam rubber and plastic laminates, among others.
As the first all-plastic chair made in one piece, the Panton Chair designed by Verner Panton in 1960 became an icon in the history of furniture design. Its durable cantilever construction, stackable design, dyed-through and easy-to-clean material with a lustrous finish made it suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Created in a range of colours, the chair was developed for serial production in collaboration with furniture manufacturer Vitra in 1967.
Verner Panton (1926-1998), Chair (model PA 100), 1960‑1967 (example of 1974), Luran‑S thermoplastic, produced by Vitra, Weil am Rhein, Germany, for Herman Miller International, Zeeland, Michigan. MMFA, Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection, gift of Luc d’Iberville‑Moreau. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
A Home that Pops
Throughout the exhibition as well as in two sections dedicated respectively to plastics and to a stylish living room, juxtapositions of artworks with objects from the Museum’s decorative arts and design collection accentuate the potency, consistency, and fluidity of the Pop aesthetic. Sleek lines, dazzling colours, and bold patterns, such as those in the Safari sectional couch by Archizoom Associati, dominate these exemplary displays of the technological innovations and materials of the day that made products more widely affordable.
Archizoom Associati (1966-1974), Safari Sectional Couch, 1967-1968, fibreglass, latex foam, cotton, synthetic leopard print upholstery, produced by Poltronova, Montale, Italy. MMFA, Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection. Photo MMFA, Brian Merrett
The Space Age
The heightened tension of the Cold War (1947-1991) and the ensuing space race were the inspiration behind creative expressions, real and imaginary, across all art disciplines. James Rosenquist was fascinated by space exploration and the cosmos. After three astronauts died in a flash fire onboard Apollo I during a training session in 1967, he created Flamingo Capsule to commemorate them and to honour the American space program.
James Rosenquist (1933-2017), Flamingo Capsule, 1973, lithograph, 16/85. MMFA, purchase, Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest. © Estate of James Rosenquist / Artist rights society (ARS), NY / CARCC Ottawa 2023. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
Rosenquist used warm colours to set off twisted floating objects and evoke the onboard explosion. The artist’s former career as a billboard painter is evident in the cropping and the close-up imagery of objects rendered in proportions large enough to make them recognizable from afar.
Future Now!
Big Sleep reflects Edmund Alleyn’s interest in science and technology, and exemplifies the appeal of futuristic shapes and the space age aesthetic in the 1960s. In this multimedia mural relief, Alleyn expresses his prediction about the future of scientific technology, wherein human and machine are merged. A screen with an image of a human brain covered in flashing lights, and a control panel featuring a reel‐to‐reel audio tape, a 35 mm slide projector, a human figure wearing an oxygen mask and other technological and biomedical components reveal the artist’s combined fascination and skepticism concerning a society infiltrated by automation.
For its part, Guy Montpetit’s robotic creature in Two Cultures – One Nation incarnates science fiction’s fixation with aliens while embodying the vibrancy of Pop art’s formal attributes.
Edmund Alleyn (1931-2004), Big Sleep, 1968, wood, glass, acrylic, thermoplastics, metallic finish alkyd paint, acrylic paint, liquid ink, colour slide projections, incandescent light, sound. MMFA, gift of Anne Cherix Alleyn and Jennifer Alleyn. Photo MMFA, Christine Guest
Guy Montpetit (born in 1938), Two Cultures – One Nation, No. 4 from the series “C,” 1968, acrylic on canvas. MMFA, purchase, Saidye and Samuel Bronfman Collection of Canadian Art. Photo MMFA, Christine Guest
By depicting the world around them, Pop artists’ representations were immediately recognizable – a stark contrast to the personal, introspective, and meditative approach of the Abstract Expressionists, who preceded them. Abstraction and painterly surfaces were replaced in Pop with figurative imagery that emphasized coolness and detachment. Moreover, these were executed using controlled modes of expression that rendered absent the artist’s gesture.
The Pop of Life! offers portrayals tinged with humour and critical commentary on the real, and sometimes frivolous, world alongside works reflecting the social, historical, and political events that defined their time.
1 An excerpt from a letter written to architects and fellow Independent Group members Peter and Alison Smithson on January 16, 1957, cited in Richard Hamilton, Collected Words 1953-1982 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982), p. 28.
The Pop of Life!
Pop Art in the Collection of the MMFA
August 31, 2023 – July 2024
Credits and curatorial team An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition is curated by Iris Amizlev, Curator – Community Engagement and Projects, MMFA.
The Museum wishes to thank the donors to the Philanthropic Circles of the MMFA Foundation. It further acknowledges the invaluable contribution of its official sponsor, Denalt Paints, and its media partner, La Presse.
The Pop of Life! was funded in part by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal and the Government of Quebec.
