Italian Futurism: The Undead Art Movement?

When people say that an art movement or school “died out,” they usually don’t mean it literally. In the case of the Italian Futurists, however, you can specify the day the movement “died”—August 17, 1916, the day that artist Umberto Boccioni succumbed to injuries at the age of 33 after falling from a horse and getting trampled during Italian Army cavalry training for World War I. Boccioni exemplified the best parts of an art movement that celebrated modern technology aesthetically. His death registers today as another senseless death among millions during the “Great War.” In a different sense, however, Italian Futurism “lived on” for another three decades and one more world war in the person of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the movement’s chief manifesto maker and warmonger. The Guggenheim Museum’s new exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe, which runs through September 1, 2014, resurrects the good, the bad, and the ugly truths of an art movement that died in the culture and wars of the past yet still lives on, zombie-like, in our modern ones. How did Italian Futurism become the undead art movement? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Italian Futurism: The Undead Art Movement?"

Richard Hamilton: The True King of Pop?

Michael Jackson proudly wore the crown as the “King of Pop” until his death in 2009. In the visual arts, at least for Americans, Andy Warhol’s ruled as the “King of Pop,” reigning as the prime example of Pop Art for the uninitiated as well as for connoisseurs. Most British (and more than a few American) art lovers, however, see Richard Hamilton as the true “King of Pop” and Warhol as just an upstart usurper to the throne. The Tate Modern’s new exhibition Richard Hamilton, which runs through May 26, 2014, provides not only a
survey of Hamilton’s greatest pop hits, but also a career-long survey that shows how he engaged with popular culture beyond just Warhol-esque celebrity and marketing gestures and got at the heart of what Pop Art should  and could be. Is Richard Hamilton the true “King of Pop”? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Richard Hamilton: The True King of Pop?"

Re-Connecting the Dots on Roy Lichtenstein

Once Roy Lichtenstein started painting Ben-Day dots in 1961, could he ever stop? After a tour of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, exhibition Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, you would probably answer no. The more important question is “Why?” The first major exhibition since Lichtenstein’s death in 1997, the show includes all of Lichtenstein’s greatest paintings—which sometimes feel like variations on one single greatest hit—as well as drawings and sculptures related to those icons of pop art. Is this a retrospective of a great artist or a recollecting of a good artist who hit on one great idea over and over, whether willing to do so or not? Fifteen years after Lichtenstein’s passing, it’s finally time to re-connect the dots and see what total portrait they create. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Re-Connecting the Dots on Roy Lichtenstein."

[Image: Roy Lichtenstein. Whaam!, 1963. Oil and Magna on canvas. Overall: 172.7 x 421.6 cm (68 x 166 in.), two panels. Tate, London, Purchased 1966. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.]

[Many thanks to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, for providing me with the image above and other press materials related to the exhibition Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, which runs through January 13, 2013.]

Can QR Codes Be the Next Pop Art Meme?

Andy Warhol had his Campbell's Soup Cans and Roy Lichtenstein had his comic book panels, but what will be the Pop art meme of today? One possible candidate is the ubiquitous QR code, the “quick response” code of black and white symbols once reserved for industrial purposes but now found in advertising and packaging seemingly everywhere (probably unnecessary example shown above). As reported by An Xiao on Hyperallergic.com, QR code art has made its way into the galleries—the first step towards making its way into the marketplace and, perhaps someday, the museums. Is this two-dimensional barcode the future symbol of our era? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Can QR Codes Be the Next Pop Art Meme?"