'Pop' exhibition pulls viewer into 1960's

"Pop Art at Princeton: Permanent and Promised" differs decidedly from other museum exhibits in terms of appearance, participation and theme. A bright pink portal brings the viewer into the exhibit and serves as a sort of time warping element, transporting the viewer into a psychedelic world.

The first piece in the exhibit is a painting of a hand pointing to the viewer in a gesture that is both accusatory and beckoning. The piece transforms the viewer from a passive observer to an active participant in this Pop Art journey. It is this theme that dominates the exhibition: the importance of the viewer in determining the meaning of each piece.

The entrance room of the exhibit has a hipster feel, fitting because the Pop Art movement started in New York City in the 1960s, following in the wake of abstract expressionism's postwar artists such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. The term "Pop Art" comes from the association with pop culture. The exhibition itself, though, has a more laid-back feel: Unlike the rest of the exhibitions in the museum, the placards containing information about the artists, date, medium and significance of the works are conspicuously absent. Instead, the information is directly placed on the wall, as if the show were not formal enough to require uptight placards. The exhibition explores the many meanings and mediums of pop-culture art spanning from Aquatint etchings to painting and sculpture. Though many of the works are reproductions, the exhibit notably boasts works from renowned artists, such as Andy Wharhol and Ed Ruscha, and each piece builds thematically from the prior one.

Toward the beginning of the exhibition is a flood of bold and colorful sculptures and mixed-media projects by Robert Indiana and Allan D'Arcangelo. The grouping of sculptures in the front room requires the viewer to move around each object to inspect the pieces as a whole and to see how each relates to another. This means that the viewer becomes more active in his or her experience with the work of art. The culminating piece of the first room is a mixed-media project by D'Arcangelo that the artist painted on a side-view car mirror. While the road and sky are delineated by paint, the viewer is also able to see his or her own face in the mirror, just as D'Arcangelo would have seen his face during the creation of the piece. In this way, the artist plays with the idea of audience participation in any work: The viewer artistically adds the finishing element the work. It is important, however, to note that D'Arcangelo has chosen to paint the right-hand side-view mirror, placing the viewer in the passenger seat. While the viewer is very much necessary to the piece as a whole, it is the artist who is in control of the ultimate creation of the work.

In his rendition of Monet's "Water Lilies" Roy Lichtenstein echoes D'Arcangelo's use of the mirror to incorporate the viewer into the experience of the piece as a whole. Instead of water, Lichtenstein has inserted curved pieces of glass that read visually as a fluid surface. He is playing with the idea of the water's surface, however, which is also a place to glance at your own reflection.

The exhibit also features Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Tom Wesselmann and Robert Rauschenberg. In one of his mixed-media works, Rauschenberg shows an x-ray layered with other media. The x-ray causes the viewer to contemplate his or her own being and existence. The work by D'Arcangelo situates the viewer as an active participant in the viewing experience. Rauschenberg's work, however, goes even further, relying on the human form to create the work of art itself. Pop Art as represented in this exhibition is not a celebration of pop culture; instead, it is a celebration of the viewer.

The show, however, is not without flaw. The overall ambience takes away from each individual piece. As viewers enter the exhibition, they are nearly blinded by pink paint that transports them back in time to the 1960s. While the wall color and absence of formalities in the exhibit aid in the perception and understanding of the Pop Art movement as a whole, the presentation of the exhibit is a bit excessive. Strolling through the exhibit, I half expected to see the security guards in bellbottoms and platforms. The pieces in this exhibit do not require any theatrical surroundings. They speak for themselves.

"Pop Art at Princeton: Permanent and Promised" is on display in the Princeton University Art Museum until Aug. 12.