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Female Pop Art Artists

BlackRosy de Saint Phalle

Ampersand IV by Chryssa 1965Seductive Subversion –  the name of the exhibition at the University of the Arts earlier on this year, shows a different, less commercial side to Pop Art – mainly because it’s all produced by women. These pieces are observant, pithy and quirky, and were  overlooked at the time because of their glamorous male peacock counterparts. This exhibition wishes to redress this imbalance and celebrate a wider definition of the Pop Art Movement.

It was the first exhibition of female Pop Art and is now to be seen, I believe, at Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, although I can’t see it on their web site as yet.

This Times Square inspired ‘Ampersand IV’, is a stylized neon ampersand in a Plexiglas cube by Chryssa, one of the first artists to utilize neon in her work in 1965.

Mara McAfe’s ‘Marvelous Modern Mechanical Men’ harks back to Art Deco.

BlackRosy de Saint Phalle

But I think my favourite is Black Rosie by Niki de Saint Phalle. Eight foot tall, this colourful, lumpy, playful figure glorifies woman’s roles without the usual half naked predilections.

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