The U-M History of Art Department celebrates the Bicentennial with this symposium featuring renowned artist and U-M alumna Michele Oka Doner, and History of Art faculty Alex Potts, and Rebecca Zurier.
This symposium explores the art historical and cultural significance of two pioneering exhibitions of Pop Art, held at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in 1963. In those years the concept of Pop was under construction. Subjects addressed in the art— consumer culture, food and other appetites, technology and the mass media, the Cold War, women’s roles—were live issues at the University. By showcasing artists whose work was too raw or unusual to become part of the later canon, this event helps revise historical understanding of the early 1960s and opens a window into creative life at the University. The symposium will include presentations by noted art historians, followed by a discussion with alumni whose minds were blown as art students at time of the exhibitions.

This LSA Bicentennial Theme Semester event is presented with support from the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the University of Michigan Bicentennial Office, and the U-M History of Art Department. Additional support provided by the Department of History, the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.