Podcast — Episode 5
Commercial Culture, Realism and Pop Art: A Conversation with Michael Lobel
Our guest on this episode is Michael Lobel, professor of art history at Hunter College and the author of books on Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and John Sloan.
In Part One:
Realism in 20th-century art: challenging the received critical narrative of the “triumph of abstraction” (1:30) — Contemporary realists e.g. Kerry James Marshall, Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz (2:45) — Is there an elite-popular divide in the audience for 20th-century realism? (3:45) — Linda Nochlin and 20th-century realism: Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh (5:30) — Sidney Janis, Pop and Nouveau Réalisme: imagery vs. objects (7:30) — Andy Warhol’s 1961 window display for the Bonwit Teller department store (11:00) — Andy Warhol’s Twenty-Five Colored Marilyns and the value of close study in person (16:45)
In Part Two:
The mechanical and the handmade in early Pop Art: Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann (0:55) — Andy Warhol vs. Pop Art (5:05) — The past, the obsolete and outmoded, and the origins of the term “Pop Art” (6:40) — James Rosenquist, the Cold War and the military-industrial complex (11:15) — Pop Art around the world (16:00) — John Sloan and the Ash Can School: newspaper illustration, American cities and the painting of modern life (18:30)
See also:
- Michael Lobel, “Pop and Its Sources: Reconsidering Roy Lichtenstein’s Mr. Bellamy,” Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, March 20th, 2018.
- Michael Lobel, “What John Sloan Can Teach Us about Illustration and American Art,” Eldredge Prize lecture, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, October 27th, 2016.
This episode was recorded and edited by Oskar Olsson, and the Athenaeum Review podcast is produced by Creative Disturbance.