Pop América, 1965–1975

Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Pop América, 1965–1975 running September 21–December 8, 2019. 

Pop América, 1965–1975 challenges and reframes familiar notions of Pop Art by bringing together artists from North and South America, and the Caribbean. Pop América is the first exhibition to unify Latin American and Latinx expressions of Pop and explore how artists working across the hemisphere embraced its bold and colorful imagery, references to mass culture, and representations of everyday objects, signs, and symbols. The exhibition makes a timely and critical contribution to a deeper understanding of this period and Pop Art from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s.

Pop América features nearly 100 artworks by artists working in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the United States, sparking an expansion and reconsideration of Pop as a US and British phenomenon. The exhibition reshapes debates over Pop’s perceived political neutrality and aesthetic innovations. The artists in the exhibition create vital dialogues that cross national borders and include Antonio Dias, Rubens Gerchman, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Cildo Meireles, Marta Minujín, Hugo Rivera-Scott, and Andy Warhol, among others. United by their use of Pop’s visual strategies, these artists have made bold contributions to conceptualism, performance, and new media art, as well as social protest, justice movements, and debates about freedom.

Pop América opened in fall 2018 at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and was on view winter and spring 2019 at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University before traveling to Northwestern University. The exhibition is a recipient of the inaugural Sotheby’s Prize. The Block has announced that the entirety of its 2019–20 exhibition schedule will be devoted to the idea of “Global Modernisms,” and this exhibition is the first within that framework. 

Opening celebration: Pop América Pop In
Saturday, September 28, 12–4pm [RSVP]
Join an all-ages, open house to celebrate the opening of Pop América, 1965–1975. Roll up your sleeves alongside Instituto Gráfico de Chicago and participate in printmaking activities for all ages. Watch and tune in to a radio broadcast, recorded on-site by members of Pop Up Youth Radio. Hear live music sets by Chicago-based ensemble Trío Calavera, playing son jarocho.  Take a tour of the exhibition highlights.

Opening keynote: Contesting Freedom: Pop América, 1965–1975 curator conversation with Esther Gabara
Wednesday, October 2, 6pm [RSVP]
The ground-breaking exhibition Pop América draws attention to Latin American and US Latino/a artists who turned the “Pop” of Pop art into a verb by using familiar images of modern life—including mass media, fashion, food, and advertising—to make forceful interventions into art and society. Esther Gabara, curator of  Pop América, discusses the politics of Pop as well as the artists from across the hemisphere who shared dreams and struggles over the idea of a singular América.

More exhbition programs

Pop América, 1965–1975 is co-organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. The exhibition is a recipient of the Sotheby’s Prize and is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA). The project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Alumnae of Northwestern University. 

About The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University
Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art is a dynamic, imaginative and innovative teaching and learning resource for the University and its surrounding communities, featuring a global exhibition program that crosses time periods and cultures and serves as a springboard for thought-provoking discussions relevant to our lives today. Admission to the museum is always free and open to all.​