SAM – Pop Departures

The exhibit Pop Departures runs from October 30, 2014 to January 11, 2015 at the Seattle Art Museum. We caught it last Saturday, along with City Dwellers. I can’t say I really liked Pop, but I liked it enough and learned a few things *. I’ve never been a fan of Pop art, for no particular reason other than it doesn’t move me – whatever that means. In this exhibit, with our knowledgeable guide Kevin, I learned more than I knew walking into the exhibit, so it was a success from that point of view. And, I dare say I liked some of the pieces.

*The silly things I learned from the visit:

• Andy Warhol called Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg the staple-gun queens. See, for example, the book Pop Trickster Fool
• Johns and Rauschenberg had a romantic relationship for six years according to the Slate article Is MoMA Putting Artists Back in the Closet?
• Random, but fun quote on fame from opera singer Joyce DiDonato in a 2013 interview in the New Yorker: “You know the four phases of an opera career? ‘Who is Joyce DiDonato? Get me Joyce DiDonato! Get me someone like Joyce DiDonato! Who is Joyce DiDonato?’ ”

POP Departures Collage with bits of work by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Barbara Kruger