Exhibitions: Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968

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  May 31, 2010: The first major exhibition to explore in depth the contributions of female Pop artists, Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968, seeks to expand the definition of classic Pop art and re-evaluate the role of the women who worked alongside the movement’s more famous male practitioners. It features more than fifty works by Pop art’s most significant female artists and includes many pieces that have not been shown in nearly forty years. The exhibition will be on view in the Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and in the adjacent fourth-floor Schapiro Wing galleries.
  
  Although radical social changes were taking place in America in the 1960s, the female Pop artists of the time remained largely unacknowledged by the contemporary art critics and academics. Relegated to the margins of history by discrimination, historical precedent, and social expectations, these women were forced to take a back seat to their male counterparts, who became icons of the era. Informed by their personal histories, the work of female Pop artists was often collaborative and incorporated empathetic social commentary.
  
  Seductive Subversion includes Marisol’s John Wayne sculpture, commissioned by Life magazine for an issue on movies; the French sculptor, painter, and filmmaker Niki de Saint Phalle’s eight-foot-tall Black Rosy, one of her “Nana” sculptures exploring the role of women; Rosalyn Drexler’s oil and acrylic work Chubby Checker, inspired by the poster for the movie Twist around the Clock, and Home Movies, based on frames from old gangster movies; the Times Square–inspired Ampersand, a multilayered, stylized, and illuminated neon ampersand in a Plexiglas cube by Chryssa, one of the first artists to utilize neon in her work; and a seventeen-foot-long triptych by Idelle Weber. Artwork has been loaned by the National Gallery; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.); the Neuberger Museum (Purchase, New York); and major private collectors.
  
  Works from the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings have been added exclusively for the Brooklyn exhibition. They include Squeeze Me and You Can’t Catch Me by Mara McAfee; Dear Diana and My Love We Won’t by Niki de Saint Phalle; Nestle’s Box by Marjorie Strider; and Cents Sign Travelling from Broadway to Africa via Guadeloupe by Chryssa, which will be on display at the Museum for the first time. Paintings and sculptures by Evelyne Axell, Pauline Boty, Vija Celmins, Dorothy Grebenak, Kay Kurt, Yayoi Kusama, Lee Lozano, Mara McAfee, Barbro Ostlihn, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Marjorie Strider, Kiki Kogelnik, Marta Minujin, and May Wilson will also be featured.
  
  Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968 was organized by the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The Brooklyn presentation is coordinated by Catherine Morris, Curator of the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the University of the Arts Press and Abbeville Press.

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Press Coverage of this Exhibition

• THE NEW SEASON | ART; Dalí, Richter and Houdini in Chains!September 12, 2010 By KAREN ROSENBERG"Dates and touring sites are subject to change. SEPTEMBER FISH FORMS: LAMPS BY FRANK GEHRY Eight lamps and other works by the 81-year-old starchitect reveal an interest in piscine imagery. Through Oct. 31 at the Jewish Museum, Manhattan; (212) 423-3200, jewishmuseum.org. GABRIEL KURI The museum mounts a 10-year survey of this Mexico City artist,..."
• Movements Expanded And RedefinedSeptember 12, 2010 By ROBERTA SMITH"ONE thing about art objects: they never shut up. If they survive, they continue to broadcast; they transmit information and spawn experiences that we savor, puzzle over, interpret and judge. With time, real people and actual events fade, but works of art of all disciplines often live to see another day, make a different impression and appear in a..."
• THE WEEK AHEAD | OCT. 10--OCT. 16October 10, 2010 "Art Ken Johnson The five most famous Pop artists are all men: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Tom Wesselmann and Claes Oldenburg. What about the women? ''Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968,'' a potentially revelatory exhibition opening Friday at the Brooklyn Museum, presents more than 50 works by 25 female artists..."
• ART REVIEW; Before the Rebellion, Playful Pop Art NoveltyOctober 15, 2010 By KEN JOHNSON"Why have there been no great female Pop artists? That's the question posed by Sid Sachs at the start of his catalog essay for ''Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968,'' a revelatory time capsule of an exhibition that he has organized at the Brooklyn Museum. He is paraphrasing the title of Linda Nochlin's monument of feminist art..."
• The ListingsOctober 22, 2010 "Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums - Asia Society Museum: 'Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool,' through Jan. 2. This Japanese artist, known for paintings and sculptures of big-eyed toddlers and friendly dogs redolent of children's books, makes over the entire..."
• The ListingsOctober 29, 2010 "Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums - Asia Society Museum: 'Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool,' through Jan. 2. This Japanese artist, known for paintings and sculptures of big-eyed toddlers and friendly dogs redolent of children's books, makes over the entire..."
• The ListingsNovember 5, 2010 "Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums - Asia Society Museum: 'Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody's Fool,' through Jan. 2. This Japanese artist, known for paintings and sculptures of big-eyed toddlers and friendly dogs redolent of children's books, makes over the entire..."
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