Claes Oldenburg, Floor Burger, 1962. Canvas filled with foam rubber and cardboard boxes, painted with acrylic paint, Overall: 132.1 x 226.1 cm. Purchase, 1967. © Claes Oldenburg. 66/29.
SuperReal: Pop Art from the AGO Collection
The Pop artists on display in the Edmond G. Odette Family Gallery didn’t just document the popular; they confronted it. To quote painter James Rosenquist, “I’m amazed and excited and fascinated about the way things are thrust at us… things larger than life, the impact of things thrown at us.” Artists analyzed the effect on the human psyche of mass media, of celebrity culture and of the immediate access everyone seemed to have to a wealth of new products and information. The result: the use of everyday objects, huge pictures and grossly inflated reproductions in surprising materials. With these strategies, Pop art managed to lay bare the insatiable materialism, gluttony and excessive visual stimulation of this new world.
Visit the Gallery, look at the works, and share your responses on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #AGOasks.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
This exhibition is included with general admission.