Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968

Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968 examines the impact of women artists on the traditionally male-dominated field of Pop art. It reconsiders the narrow definition of the Pop art movement and reevaluates its critical reception. In recovering important female artists, the show expands the canon to reflect more accurately the women working internationally during this period. The exhibition features 68 artworks by 22 artists. Some of these artists experimented with then-new, industrial materials such as Plexiglas, plastics, rubber, and neon to create unique works of art that responded to the effects of mass-production. Others subverted domestic skills they had learned as young girls to create the first “soft sculpture” using fabrics, plastics, and other found materials that deployed a craft aesthetic as high art. Others appropriated from mass culture, including Hollywood film, advertising, publicity photos, and commercial publishing to critique emergent popular culture and male fantasies about female desire.