The Power Pop Cheney Cowles Explores Pop Art’s Enduring Appeal

Nearly everything but the kitchen sink is included in the Cheney Cowles Museum’s exhibit that opens today at the museum and at various other times and sites throughout Spokane.

“Soup to Nuts: Pop Art and Its Legacy,” curated from collections at The University of Lethbridge, Alberta, features American, British and Canadian pop artists — including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichenstein and Claes Oldenburg.

The exhibit will provide “a rare look at an internationally significant collection of prints, paintings and sculpture,” said Barbara Racker, museum art curator.

Pop art from the 1950s and ‘60s had a profound effect on other art categories because it encouraged artists to look at culture rather than nature for inspiration, Racker said.

Pop art is also known as “new realism” because it reacted against the previous movement of abstract expressionism.

The art form began in England in the mid-1950s. But it was Andy Warhol who popularized the genre with his silkscreen rendition of the common red-and-white Campbell soup can — and boosted the company’s sales worldwide.

Warhol’s work has been called weird, bewildering, outrageous, slick, controversial — and, most importantly, best-recognized.

It was also called “image appropriation” as it deftly combined natural images with the glossy sophisticated treatments of commercial art.

“I like boring things,” Warhol once said. “That means I like everything. Everything is boring.”

Art critics, according to a 1968 newspaper article, were “unable to say whether he (Warhol) was celebrating or ridiculing middle-class values” with his renditions of commonly advertised items.

At first, Campbell Soup officials didn’t quite know what to make of Warhol’s silkscreens of their soup cans.

“They thought I was making fun of them,” Warhol said. “I really wasn’t.”

The company eventually caught on to the eccentric artist’s signature and rewarded him with a souper-sized contract.

Among the most famous pieces in the museum’s “Soup to Nuts” show will be Warhol’s “Noodle O’s,” a Campbell soup can; “Jackie III,” Jackie Kennedy; and “Vote McGovern,” a likeness of Richard Nixon.

There is also a soft drum set miniature by Claes Oldenburg; “Viennese Heart I and II” by Jim Dine; “Crak,” a cartoon image by Roy Lichtenstein; “Interior” by Richard Hamilton; and “Still Life with Liz Taylor” by Tom Wesselmann.

At the museum will be the ever-popular “Jesus Corner” by Edward and Nancy Reddin Keinholz, along with a “living room” straight out of the ‘60s, said Racker.

A museum employee, scrounging the city’s thrift stores for 30-year-old furniture and other kitsch items for the room, came across a real find - a big ‘60s stereo-TV set, which will play tapes of news shows, complete with ads, from that time, Racker said. A treasure of Life magazines was also found and will grace the coffeetable.

There will be hands-on projects in the museum’s Atrium Gallery during the exhibit’s run.

Two projects will be based on the 1960s works of Arman, a French-American artist who created “Rubbish Boxes” out of - what else? - garbage; and “Cachets,” using typographical rubber stamps to create art pieces.

The third will be “Decollage,” once created from multiple layers of posters glued together and tacked to telephone poles. Project participants will create a rendition of that art form by first gluing layers of colored paper and pages of magazine pictures, then tearing them apart to create patterns.

The Pop Art exhibit’s opening party will be from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. March 13 at the museum, 2316 W. First. Admission is $15 for museum members and $20 for non-members. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served; music will be by Men in the Making.

It’s suggested you wear your favorite ‘60s outfit, or come as a piece of pop art.

The museum exhibit will run through June 14.

Gallery hours at the museum are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.

Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2.50 for students, and free for children under age 6. Wednesdays are half price from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and free from 5-9 p.m.

The satellite exhibits and their shows are:

Chase Gallery, Spokane City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.: “Jim Dine: The Foreign Plowman and Other Prints,” today through May 1; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Koehler Gallery, Whitworth College: “Prints by British Pop Artists,” Tuesday through April 16; 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The gallery will be closed during spring break, March 23-27, and the afternoon of Good Friday, April 10.

Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University: “David Hockney: A Rake’s Progress,” March 20 to May 9; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Spokane Arena: “Andy Warhol: The Gretsky Prints,” March 13 to May 17; available for viewing only during events.

Lorinda Knight Gallery, 523 W. Sprague: Works of Stuart Davis, Robert Indiana and Ed Ruscha, today to March 28; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Spokane Transit Authority Plaza, 701 W. Riverside: “Jenny Holzer: Selections from Truisms,” March 13 to June 14. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 4 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ART EXHIBIT “Soup to Nuts,” an exhibit featuring pop art from collections at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, opens today at Cheney Cowles Museum and continues through June 14.