The American dream is often associated with the idea that anyone can make it in America.
But for 1960s Pop artists like Robert Indiana, the term might have been better defined as “anyone can buy anything.” “Post-World War II, America has this economic boom, and because of that, there’s all sorts of fancy new modern mass-produced things being created,” said BYU Museum of Art curator Ashlee Whitaker. “America’s changing and it’s all this new kind of economic culture and commercial mindset, and advertising and media goes nuts, and that is a lot of what Pop is responding to.”
BYU’s Museum of Art is set to open an exhibition Friday titled “Supermarket: Pop Art and 1960s America from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.” that will feature more than 40 pieces — including Indiana’s “The American Dream” — by artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Wayne Thiebaud and James Rosenquist.
Read the full story written by Sarah Harris at Deseret News.