Pop América, 1965-1975

Pop art, for all its ubiquity, is a movement obscured by a few lazy myths. The first: that it was an Anglo-American phenomenon. The second: that its banal refurbishing of consumer culture made it it largely apolitical. A new exhibition, on view beginning February 21 at the Nasher, seeks to offer a radical counter-narrative. Pop América is the first major exhibition to present a “hemispheric vision” of the movement, featuring more than one hundred mid-century Latino/a and Latin American artists, including Luis Cruz Azaceta and Jorge de la Vega. Their work, which involves both dissent and new narratives around postwar Pan-America, is a long-needed contribution to the scholarship around Pop art; it’s also a very fun and visually enthralling exhibition, brimming with the movement’s signature color and pizzazz. A number of events surround the opening, including a party and curator talk with Duke professor Esther Gabara on February 21 and a February 28 screening of the film Pop América: Olimpiada en México. —Sarah Edwards