Pop Art and Popular Music
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Pop Art and Popular Music This book offers an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to Pop art scholarship through a recuperation of popular music into art historical understandings of the movement. Jukebox modernism is a procedure by which Pop artists used popular music within their works to disrupt decorous modernism during the 1960s. Artists, including Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol, respond to popular music for reasons such as its emotional connectivity, issues of fandom and identity, and the pleasures and problems of looking and listening to an artwork. When we both look at and listen to Pop art, essential aspects of Pop’s history that have been neglected—its sounds, its women, its queerness, and its black subjects— come into focus. Melissa L. Mednicov is Assistant Professor of Art History at Sam Houston State University. Cover Image: Pauline Boty, My Colouring Book (1963), oil on canvas, 152.4 x 121.9 cm. Collection of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Source: Pauline Boty Estate/Whitford Fine Art. Image courtesy of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. Routledge Research in Art History Routledge Research in Art History is our home for the latest scholarship in the field of art history. The series publishes research monographs and edited collections, covering areas including art history, theory, and visual culture. These high-level books focus on art and artists from around the world and from a multitude of time periods. By making these studies available to the worldwide academic community, the series aims to promote quality art history research. For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/Routledge- Research-in-Art-History/book-series/RRAH Raymond Jonson and the Spiritual in Modernist and Abstract Painting Herbert R. Hartel, Jr. Radical Marble Architecture and Innovation from Antiquity to the Present Edited by J. Nicholas Napoli and William Tronzo Globalizing East European Art Histories Past and Present Edited by Beáta Hock and Anu Allas Visual Typologies from the Early Modern to the Contemporary Local Contexts and Global Practices Edited by Tara Zanardi and Lynda Klich Cultural Mobility in the Interwar Avant-Garde Art Network Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands Michał Wenderski Pop Art and Popular Music Jukebox Modernism Melissa L. Mednicov www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Art-History/book-series/RRAH Pop Art and Popular Music Jukebox Modernism Melissa L. Mednicov First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Melissa L. Mednicov to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Mednicov, Melissa L., author. Title: Pop art and popular music: jukebox modernism / by Melissa L. Mednicov. Description: New York: Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge research in art history | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018023001 (print) | LCCN 2018023131 Subjects: LCSH: Pop art—Themes, motives. | Art and music. | Music in art. | Arts and society—History—20th century. Classification: LCC NX456.5.P6 (ebook) | LCC NX456.5.P6 M43 2018 (print) | DDC 709.04/071—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023001 ISBN: 978-0-8153-7420-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-18739-8 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra Contents Figures vi Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Towards a Definition of Jukebox Modernism 1 1 How to Hear a Painting: Jukebox Modernism and Elvis Presley in Pop 16 2 Pink, White, and Black: The Strange Case of James Rosenquist’s Big Bo 39 3 The Sound and Look of Melodrama in Pauline Boty’s Pop Paintings 58 4 Soundtrack Not Included: Andy Warhol’s Sleep 78 5 Sounding Pop Art: An Exhibition History 96 Conclusion: Contemporary Jukebox Modernism 115 Bibliography 119 Index 137 Figures 1.1 Peter Blake, Got a Girl (1960–1961) 20 1.2 Peter Blake, Self-Portrait with Badges (1961) 21 1.3 Ray Johnson, Oedipus (Elvis Presley #1) (ca. 1956–1957) 22 1.4 Ray Johnson, Elvis #2 (ca. 1956–1957) 24 1.5 Andy Warhol, Double Elvis (1963) 27 1.6 Mimmo Rotella, L’a ssalto (1962) 30 2.1 James Rosenquist, Big Bo (1966) 40 2.2 James Rosenquist, Painting for the American Negro (1962–1963) 41 2.3 Rosalyn Drexler, Chubby Checker (1964) 44 2.4 Andy Warhol, (Pink) Race Riot (1963) 50 3.1 Pauline Boty, My Colouring Book (1963) 59 3.2 Pauline Boty, 5-4-3-2-1, 1963 63 3.3 Pauline Boty, With Love to Jean-Paul Belmondo (1962) 64 3.4 Pauline Boty, Celia Birtwell and Some of Her Heroes (1963) 65 3.5 Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl (1963) 69 4.1 Andy Warhol, Sleep (1963) 79 5.1 Martial Raysse, Raysse Beach (1962) 98 5.2 Poster for a concert with Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground and Nico, at St. Mark’s Place (Manhattan): Exploding Plastic Inevitable Live! 105 Acknowledgments This book is, in part, developed from my dissertation “I Only Have Eyes for You: Three Case Studies in Rock ‘n’ Roll, Fandom, and Pop Art.” My graduate advisor at Pennsylvania State University, Sarah K. Rich, has been instrumental to my develop- ment as a scholar, teacher, and writer. I am grateful for her mentorship and guidance then and now. Many of the ideas for this book, along with the term jukebox modern- ism, were born in conversation with her. I wish to convey my gratitude to my disser- tation committee, Sarah K. Rich, Nancy Locke, Madhuri Desai, Brian Curran, and Christopher Reed, for their insights regarding an earlier version of some parts of this project. I am also thankful to Tony Cutler for his insights. Brian Curran inspired me with his love of music, unabashed fandom, sharp intelligence, and kindness. I hope my work here offers one small remembrance of him and his mentorship. I am grateful to Madhuri and Nancy for their continued support. I am thankful to Jenny Gear, Jillian Balay, Janalee Emmer, Laura Sivert, Pierette Kulpa, and Gretta Tritch Roman for their friendship. I am grateful to Marsely Kehoe for her friendship and editorial suggestions. I am grateful to Kelema Lee Moses for her friendship, which includes editorial suggestions in both life and art history. Research for parts of this book at the dissertation stage was supported by the Penn- sylvania State University’s Department of Art History Spring Dissertation Fellow- ship, Pennsylvania State University’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities’ Graduate Summer Residency, and Pennsylvania State University’s Waddell Biggart Graduate Fellowship, for which I am grateful. I would like to thank in remembrance William S. Wilson for his generosity to me with his knowledge, time, and materials about Ray Johnson. Additionally, I am grateful to the Mimmo Rotella Archives, and the staffs at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Tate Museum, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, British Film Insti- tute, Feigen Gallery, and the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester for their assistance. I am also grateful to Sir Peter Blake. I would also like to express my gratitude to Nancy Princenthal for her advice and editorial suggestions for two chapters while I was the recipient of the 2016–2017 Art Writing Workshop through the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program and the International Art Critics Association/USA Section (AICA/USA). I am grateful to the Department of Art at Sam Houston State University for their support of my research throughout this project. I am thankful to the library and inter- library loan staff at the Newton Gresham Library. Additionally, I would like to thank my colleagues, in particular Michael Henderson and Becky Finley, for their friendship and discussions of my ideas. viii Acknowledgments My chapter, “Pink, White, and Black: The Strange Case of James Rosenquist’s Big Bo” largely comes from my essay “Pink, White, and Black: The Strange Case of James Rosenquist’s Big Bo” which was first published by the College Art Association in Art Journal (Spring 2014) 73: 60–75. Some parts and ideas included in the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 5 appeared in earlier forms in my essays, “How to Hear a Painting: Looking and Listening to Pop Art,” in Imago Musicae: International Year- book of Musical Iconography, vol. 27/28, ed. Björn R. Tammen et al., Guest editorial: Anne Leonard and Tim Shephard, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2015: 213–228 and “Jukebox Modernism: The Transatlantic Sight and Sound of Peter Blake’s Got a Girl (1960–1961),” in The Global Si xties in Sound and Vision: Media, Counter- culture, Revolt, ed. Timothy Scott Brown and Andrew Lison, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014: 211–226. I am thankful to the editors and peer reviewers for their suggestions. Additionally, aspects of the book have been presented at national and international conferences. I am grateful for the feedback and suggestions I received from the or- ganizers, participants, and audience members at “The Noises of Art: Audiovisual Practice in History, Theory, and Culture,” “Art in Transfer: Curatorial Practices and Transnational Strategies in the Era of Pop,” Popular Culture Association National Conference, Southeastern College Art Conference, and College Art Association.