This gallery takes its name— Things —from French writer Georges Perec’s 1965 novel, which follows the journey of a young couple who “wanted life’s enjoyment, but all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership.” The story captures the changing values that emerged after World War II: As consumer culture boomed globally, new forms of mass media introduced a stream of endless material and sensorial desires. With its bright colors and repetitive imagery, the culture of advertising branded everything, from food to celebrities—even the recently conquered moon.
Pop art, Andy Warhol said in 1963, “is liking things.” The movement sourced its imagery from the products circulating in supermarkets and on TV screens, “things” embodying a promise of modern living that had begun to spread internationally. Popular culture was a magnetic theme for artists around the world, who replicated it, celebrated it, and contested it. As the works here show, questions of branding, seriality, and consumerism defined the 1960s, and became central ideas for both Pop and Conceptual art.
Organized by Inés Katzenstein, Curator of Latin American Art and Director of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute, with Julia Detchon, Curatorial Associate, Department of Drawings and Prints, and Rachel Rosin, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints and Department of Curatorial Affairs.
