Description

"Pop art owes more to commercial design than any other art movement, but this catalogue documents the less-explored inverse influence of Pop art on designers." -Eric Bryant, Art + Auction

As the most influential art movement of the postwar era, Pop art continues to shape our visual culture today. A central preoccupation of Pop was its dialogue with design, extensively investigated for the first time in this volume, published in conjunction with Vitra Design Museum's exhibition of the same name. Here, key works of Pop art by Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Niki de Saint Phalle and Andy Warhol are juxtaposed with design objects from the same period by the likes of Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, Gruppo Strum, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Studio 65 and Ettore Sottsass. These works are buttressed with a wealth of illustrations from everyday culture, interior design and contemporary history, while opulent image spreads are accompanied by comprehensive essays from renowned experts and scholars, among them Diedrich Diederichsen, Brigitte Felderer, Steven Heller, Thomas Kellein, Marco Livingstone and Dario Scodeller. These essays document how artists and designers availed themselves of similar motifs and strategies in the Pop era. Objects of everyday use were adopted as art motifs and artists utilized industrial processes while designers made use of artistic means such as quotes, collage and irony. With more than 300 illustrations, Pop Art Design paints a picture of the Pop era that finally gives proper recognition to the central role played by design, offering a kaleidoscope through which to rediscover the Pop phenomenon.