Some of the biggest names in the pop art movement, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, settled into Georgetown’s Spagnuolo Art Gallery this weekend. Located in the lobby of Walsh, the gallery is showcasing these artists in its newest exhibit, Pop Art Prints.
In addition to displaying some of the most iconic pop art imagery, the exhibit also features works that, as curator and Georgetown museum studies fellow Carolanne Bonanno points out, “…are a little more alternative, so that [students] could compare them to the larger names.”
These big name pieces and lesser-known alternative works provide Hoyas with a vast range of pop art in the gallery’s limited space.
Some of the most prominent works the exhibit features are Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe and Jackie I. Marilyn Monroe is a lithograph print which depicts the famous actress, whose portrait takes up nearly the entire composition. This print mostly makes use of neutral tones, except for the bright pink around the actress’s mouth and hair. The pink lips and locks jump out of the canvas without taking away attention from the portrait as a whole.
Warhol’s Jackie I is a monochromatic portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy before her husband’s death. In retrospect, her happy demeanor invokes a sense of tragic irony, for she is blissfully unaware of her impeding loss. Both of these works function beautifully as two of the exhibit’s centerpieces on the rear wall of the gallery.
Fans of the pop art movement may also recognize the Shipboard Girl by Roy Lichtenstein, placed right next to the Warhol works. In this print, Lichtenstein uses Ben-Day dots, a printing technique commonly found in newspapers, to give the illusion of varying values. In reality, the dots are made up of simple primary colors, white, and black. The result is a piece with basic but powerful tones that looks like a panel straight out of a comic book.
The other, more alternative pieces in the gallery demonstrate the breadth of the pop art movement. One visually striking piece is Signs by Ronald Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg created the collage in 1970 shortly after the death of singer Janis Joplin, whose image is one of the main focal points of the work. The piece also features soldiers from the Vietnam War, John F. and Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King’s funeral, images that highlight just how tumultuous a decade America had just witnessed. But then the image of Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon consoles us, for one cannot look into Buzz’s helmet and not feel some awe from the power of human achievement.
Another standout work is Water Made of Lines and a Blue Wash by David Hockney. This lithographic print utilizes a cool, Californian blue and green color scheme to depict a swimming pool in the summer. The work’s emphasis is on the water, and while Hockney’s approach is simple, his effect is astounding.
Together, the pieces in Walsh’s broad-ranging exhibit succeed in showing Georgetown students the breadth and power of the pop art movement. While there’s no fall semester break, works like Water Made of Lines and a Blue Wash will take you on a brief vacation.
