Pop Art from the 1960s is focus of major exhibition at MCASD

Pop Art — a movement that challenged artistic convention in the 1960s — is the focus of a major exhibition opening Friday at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla.

“A Decade of Pop Prints and Multiples, 1962–1972: The Frank Mitzel Collection” marks the public debut of a San Diego-based collector’s gift of more than sixty Pop Art prints to the museum.

On view at MCASD are vibrant works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, longtime San Diego resident Niki de Saint Phalle, and others from the period.

The artists drew on advertising and mass media for the bright hues, flat graphics, and rapid legibility that defined the movement.

“Pop’s commercial imagery may evoke nostalgia for the products of years past; Coca-Cola, Marlboro, Phillips 66 gasoline, and Campbell’s soup all appear in the Mitzel Collection,” said Senior Curator Jill Dawsey.

Assembled by Mitzel over the course of three decades, the collection offers an impressive survey of Pop’s growth across the United States, England, and Europe during an era of rapid transformation.

“Pop artists were among the first to embrace printmaking specifically as a democratic medium, one that enabled them to reach broad audiences — and thus was truly popular — while courting associations with the commercial culture that inspired the work,” explained Dawsey.

The museum at 700 Prospect Street is open Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.