On the 22nd of February 1987, Pop artist Andy Warhol suddenly died in his sleep at the age of 59 in NYC – the cause was an undiagnosed arrhythmia following a routine gallbladder operation. In addition to his iconic multimedia work which generally gets all the exposure, Warhol was a highly prolific filmmaker. Between 1963 […]
Category Archives: Pop Culture
February
20
Wonder Woman: Feminist Role Model or Male Fantasy?
posted by ArtLark
On the 20th of February 1893, American psychologist Elizabeth Holloway was born on the Isle of Man, subsequently immigrating and growing up in Boston, Massachusetts. Elizabeth and her husband William Moulton Marston – scientist, psychologist and writer, formed a peculiarly creative pair. He ended up making an important scientific discovery when his wife told him […]
February
10
Roy Lichtenstein: When Mickey Went Pop
posted by ArtLark
On the 10th of February 1962, American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein showed his first solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, selling out before the opening. From an artist struggling with aesthetic and financial difficulties Lichtenstein was turned into an instant success, hunted by collectors and featured in the major media. Some […]
February
07
MONOPOLY: Board Games and Ideology
posted by ArtLark
On the 7th of February 1935, one of the world’s most popular board games, MONOPOLY, was patented by Parker Brothers. Commonly thought to be a creation of one man, Charles Darrow, the game had actually undergone a lengthy process of transformation from an educational, anti-capitalist board game to Mr Darrow’s final and most successful version […]
January
14
Summer of Love
posted by ArtLark
On the 14th of January 1967, The Human Be-In, an event in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park signalled the beginning of the Summer of Love, which turned the city’s Haight-Ashbury district into the centre point of American counterculture; the world that came to characterise this suburban union was “psychedelic”. Tens of thousands of people gathered […]
January
09
The Bumsteads Are Us! The Story of Chic Young’s ‘Blondie’ Comic Strip
posted by ArtLark
On the 9th of January 1901, the American cartoonist Murat Bernard Young, better known as Chic Young, was born in Chicago, Illinois. His first comic strip The Affairs of Jane, about a low-budget film actress who dreams of becoming a real movie star, earned young Chic $22 a week. Unsurprisingly, upon receiving a phone call […]
December
16
Denny Fouts – From Escort and Literary Muse to Gay Idol
posted by ArtLark
On the 16th of December 1948, Louis Denham Fouts died in Rome of a heart attack at the young age of 35 after years of excess – drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and a wild and promiscuous lifestyle. In the 1930s and ‘40s, he became notorious as America’s luxury gigolo, socialite and muse to literary greats such […]
December
12
The Motel, Unsettling Icon of Popular Culture
posted by ArtLark
On the 12th of December 1925, Arthur Heineman opened the first recorded motel along Highway 101 just north of San Luis Obispo, California. As he couldn’t fit in the full name ‘Milestone Motor Hotel’ on the sign, he left it as ‘Motor Hotel’, which then came to be abbreviated as mo-tel. This first example of […]
October
09
Che Guevara’s Revolution in Pop Culture
posted by ArtLark
On the 9th of October 1967 Che Guevara, an Argentinian Marxist revolutionary, and allegedly one of the most famous revolutionaries in the world, was executed. The execution took place in a little Bolivian village, La Higuera, which since then has become a pilgrimage destination for numerous Che Guevara followers. The use of the word ‘pilgrimage’ […]
September
18
Franco Moschino: Anti-Elitist Haute Couture?
posted by ArtLark
On the 18th of September 1994, Italian fashion designer Franco Moschino died in Annone di Brianza, Italy. He is still seen as “the irreverent enfant terrible of the fashion industry who poked fun at the excesses of the 1980s with his “tongue in chic” designs, most memorably creating suits festooned with cutlery, jackets with faucet handles […]
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