BY KIM COOK
Mid-century modern style is now firmly planted in the home décor
landscape. And one of its elements, pop art, is cultivating a 21st century
following.
Eye-catching, graphic, often tongue-in-cheek or sassily whimsical,
pop art décor plays well off the vintage vibe and yet also makes contemporary
furnishings, well, pop.
In the 1950s, Abstract Expressionism dominated the art world, with
Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock among its superstars. The
canvas served as an arena for aggressive applications of paint. Conceptual,
nonfigurative art found a strong following in the art world, if not always with
average Americans, at least at first.
In the effervescent, culture-obsessed 1960s, artists like Andy
Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney created collages,
mixed media art and lithographs that depicted the talismans of popular culture.
They took inspiration from consumer culture, from soap boxes to soup cans,
flags to the funny papers, Marilyn Monroe to Mao. While some critics derided it
as jokey, low-brow or too focused on materialism, the approachable imagery
connected easily with mainstream America. It was hip, fun and relatable.
“I consider pop art a classic,” says Jennifer DeLonge, an interior
and product designer in Carlsbad, California. “It was such an important time in
design and it continues to withstand so many fleeting trends. As a designer,
I'm always drawn to pop first because I appreciate graphic lines and very
obvious color.”
DeLonge has launched a social marketplace app called Reissued that
brings lovers of vintage, one-of-a-kind and hard-to-find items together to buy
and sell. A bright yellow 1960s Coke bottle crate was recently up for grabs.
Fab.com's pop art décor includes Quinze + Milan's giant Brillo box
pouf. Also of note: Karlsson's minimalist wall clock made of two oversize red
hands; Finnish designer Jonna Saarinen's abstract, printed birch tray in vivid
tangerine and red; and lithographs in the Masters of Pop Art collection that
includes Warhol's portrait of Muhammad Ali, Keith Haring's “Untitled” series,
and Roy Lichtenstein's “Blonde Waiting.”
Biaugust's whimsical little black upholstered chairs shaped like
ponies, lambs and buffalo are available at Mollaspace. Here too is a vivid
bubble-gum-pink and Slushie-blue map of the world, as well as acrylic coasters
printed with blank cartoon-speech bubbles that can be written on with a
reusable pen, and a series of canvas storage bins printed with old-school boom
boxes, radios and TV sets.
A few pop art accessories in a room make a statement for a modest
price. Creative Motion's cylindrical table lamp printed with comic-strip
imagery is under $50. A collection of kicky, '70s-style graphic print pillows
from notNeutral pack pop punch.
Canvases and throw pillows from the Los Angeles art decor studio
Maxwell Dickson feature some arresting, edgy designs, including a
photorealistic image of a tableful of empty liquor bottles, a typographic
traffic jam of color-blocked letters, and the word “POP” exploding like a
cartoon graphic.
The Museum of Modern Art's store has lots of pop art items from
which to choose: Damien Hirst's white wall clock with colorful polka dots would
be terrific in a child's room. Verner Panton's black and white Optik pillow
features a dizzying kaleidoscope of circles and stripes that's as much “op” as
“pop.” There's also a wide range of prints and postcards that you can frame
yourself.
Check Spoonflower.com for fabric yardage and wallpaper with pop
art prints from new designers. There are psychedelic-inspired patterns, and
even a chicken print that riffs off of the now- famous screen-printing
technique that Warhol used for portraits.
