Fondation Louis Vuitton: POP FOREVER,TOM WESSELMANN &..

by Anna Barr

From October 17, 2024 to February 24, 2025, the Louis Vuitton Foundation will present “Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &…,” an exhibition dedicated to Pop Art, one of the major artistic movements of the 1960s whose presence has continued to assert itself on all continents and for all generations. Pop has no borders or manifesto, but rather an aesthetic that has endured far beyond the realm of art. We cannot say when Pop began and we don’t ever see it ending either. The idea that “Pop” transcends eras is explored throughout the exhibition.

Pop Art surged across both sides of the Atlantic at the end of the 1950s, as it did in Europe and North America. Paintings of comics, advertising, cinema, celebrities, domestic robots, and newspapers are often photographic reproductions put on canvas, rather than original works. Pop works, without ambiguity, promote the union of art and popular culture, museums, galleries, and the cultural sector. On display are 70 works by 35 artists of various generations and countries that share a “Pop” sensibility, spanning from Dadaist roots to current expansions from the 1920s to the present. Meanwhile Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004), one of the movement’s key exponents, is featured as a retrospective with selection of 150 paintings and works in diverse materials.

Additionally, the exhibition includes works by Derrick Adams, Ai Weiwei, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Evelyne Axell, Thomas Bayrle, Frank Bowling, Rosalyn Drexler, Marcel Duchamp, Sylvie Fleury, Lauren Halsey, Richard Hamilton, David Hammons, Jann Haworth, Barkley L. Hendricks, Hannah Höch, Jasper Johns, KAWS, Kiki Kogelnik, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Claes Oldenburg, Meret Oppenheim, Eduardo Paolozzi, Robert Rauschenberg, Martial Raysse, James Rosenquist, Kurt Schwitters, Marjorie Strider, Do Ho Suh, Mickalene Thomas, Andy Warhol, Tadanori Yokoo…