The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Signs and Objects: Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection, a focused exhibition sponsored by BBK that demonstrates the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s deep engagement with this art movement. With some 40 key works by the most significant Pop artists, the show also features a selection of contemporary pieces that explore the legacies of the movement.

• Dates: February 16 – September 15, 2024
• Curators: Lauren Hinkson and Joan Young, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum

– The cool detachment and harsh, impersonal look of Pop art signaled a direct assault on the traditions of “high art,” characterized by the personal gesture, or free flowing brushwork, which had been championed by Abstract Expressionists of the previous generation.

– The works in this exhibition, often presented with humor, wit, and irony, may be read as both a celebration of and a scathing critique of popular culture.

– The Guggenheim Museum’s engagement with Pop art began very early on with the 1963 exhibition Six Painters and the Object, which provided the institutional validation of the movement.

– The exhibition will also include the monumental Soft Shuttlecock (1995), by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, whose massive size humorously deflates the imposing structure of the building while underscoring the museum’s role as a site not only for culture and education but also for recreation and entertainment.