Pop Art and Its Influence at Art New York

Andy Warhol, Marilyn (F & S 22), 1972. Courtesy David Benrimon Fine Art
 

By PAUL LASTER, May 2017 

Although new art movements may be few and far between nowadays, Pop Art continues to prevail. Emerging in Britain and the United States in the 1950s, the Pop Art movement reached its peak in the 1960s but never completely lost its influence. Embraced again by postmodernist artists, woven into the Neo-Geo aesthetic, and important to a younger generation of both studio and street artists in Europe, Asia and the Americas, Pop Art still packs a punch.

Surveying the works at Art New York, which takes place at Pier 94 through May 7, one finds that Pop Art is the most visible thread linking works from the past to the present. Andy Warhol is the most exhibited artist, with editions from his Campbell Soup, Marilyn and Mao series in highest demand, while Damien Hirst, with his skull, star and butterfly spin paintings on paper, is not far behind in his popularity here. 

Other artists from the first generation of Pop Art are also on hand, with David Benrimon Fine Art exhibiting a small version of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture, Waterhouse & Dodd showing a preliminary drawing for a painting of a bedroom scene by Tom Wesselmann and Archeus/Post-Modern presenting David Hockney prints that the artist made on a office color copy machine and works on paper by Ed Ruscha, including silkscreen editions of his famous rendering of a Standard gas station—an iconic image in the Pop Art canon.

Ironically, Vik Muniz uses Ruscha’s celebrated gas station image as the point of departure for his 2008 photograph Norm’s on Fire, after Ruscha (from Pictures of Cars) at Zemack Contemporary Art. Employing a similar postmodernist twist on the past, Carole A. Feuerman brings Roy Lichtenstein’s famous 1961 painting Girl with Ball to mind in her realistic 2017 sculpture Miniature Brooke with Beach Ball at C24 Gallery, Mr. Brainwash references Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup cans in his 2016 stenciled street art piece Einstein at Contessa Gallery and street artist Ame72 humorously portrays a Lego character making a signature Damien Hirst spot painting in his spray-painted canvas at ZK Gallery.  

Long past but not forgotten, Pop Art still reigns—at least in the gallery’s booths at Art New York. 

Scroll through to see more of our Pop Art picks at the fair. WM

Roy Lichtenstein, Thinking Nude, 1994. Courtesy David Benrimon Fine Art
 

Damien Hirst, Spin Painting - Green Skull, 2009. Courtesy Rudolf Budja Gallery
 

Ame72 - Ame, Lego Spot Painter, 2016. Courtesy ZK Gallery

Keith Haring, Untitled (Bill T. Jones), 1983. Courtesy Gerald Hartinger Fine Arts

Robert Indiana, LOVE Red Outside Blue Inside, 1966-1995. Courtesy David Benrimon Fine Art
 

Carole A. Feuerman, Miniature Brooke with Beach Ball, 2017. Courtesy C24 Gallery


Mr. Brainwash, Einstein, 2016. Courtesy Contessa Gallery

Ed Ruscha, Mocha Standard, 1969. Courtesy Archeus/Post-Modern

Vik Muniz, Norm’s on Fire, after Ruscha (from Pictures of Cars), 2008. Courtesy Zemack Contemporary Art
 

Mark Bradford, Untitled (Corner of Desire and Piety) III, 2008. Courtesy Archeus/Post-Modern
 

David Hockney, The Office Chair, 1988. Courtesy Archeus/Post-Modern
 

Mari Kim, Snow White Red, 2016. Courtesy Shine Artists | Pontone Gallery
 

Hijack, Bubble Gum Girl, 2017. Courtesy Contessa Gallery
 

Shun Sudo, Blood 2, 2015. Courtesy Onishi Gallery
 

 Jeff Koons, Balloon Venus, Courtesy Smith Davidson Gallery
 

Lluis Barba, The Studio of the Painter, Pierre Subleyras, 2012. Courtesy Cynthia Corbett Gallery
 

Takashi Murakami, Coco (project KO2 edition/park version), 1974. Courtesy Rudolf Budja Gallery


Tom Wesselmann, Drawing for Bedroom Painting #14. Courtesy Waterhouse & Dodd


Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rinso.Courtesy David Benrimon Fine Art

Andy Warhol, Green Pea , 1968. Courtesy Sims Reed Gallery