Pop Art and Beyond

Highlighting intersections of gender, race, and class and their explosive encounters with Pop Art during the Long Sixties, this book offers a new critical reading of Pop for the 21st century.

'a brilliant and important corrective to much writing on Pop art' - Jo Applin, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Featuring an array of rigorous chapters that examine the work of over 20 artists from 5 continents, Pop Art and Beyond transcends the borders of individual and national contexts, and suspends hierarchies to create a space for the work of artists like Andy Warhol and the women of the Black Arts Movement to converse. Casting an inclusive look at the intersectional complexities of difference in Pop at a moment that gave rise to a plethora of radical social movements and identity politics, it contributes bold new perspectives on Pop’s heterogeneity.

While this book introduces revelatory non-canonical artists into the Pop context or amplifies the careers of others, it is not limited to the confines of fine art. Chapters explore the intersecting variables of oppression and liberation in rituals of youth subcultures as well as practices across media with Pop sources and parallels ranging from Native American objects, Harlem advertisements, and Cordel literature, to stand-up comedy, music, fashion, and design. Pop Art and Beyond thus widens the conversation about what Pop was and what it can be for contemporary art in its struggle for social justice and critiques of power.