American Pop Art Bursts onto the Scene

With no prior personal relationships and independently from one another, American Pop Art exploded in 1962 with four monumental exhibitions. Roy Lichtenstein had his first show of paintings based on comic-book panels at the Castelli Gallery (New York City) in February. Andy Warhol had his first solo Pop art show, 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans at the Ferus Gallery (Los Angeles) in July. James Rosenquist had his first solo show at the Green Gallery (New York City). Lichtenstein, Warhol, Ed Ruscha and Wayne Thiebaud opened the group exhibition New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum in September. Pop Art played an important role in the development of digital generative art with its emphasis on collaboration, process and mass production. Warhol’s prints also have much in common with digital generative art collections with a unified theme but individual random variation. Casey Reas has spoken of the importance of the mass production of art as a prerequisite for NFTs. This is a monumental step in that direction.