American Pop Art, 106 Forms of Love and Despair

Billy Klüver and Öyvind Fahlström

American Pop Art, 106 Forms of Love and Despair

Stockholm, Sweden:  Moderna Museet, 1964

112 pp., 22 x 22 cm., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

An early Pop Art exhibition catalogue, produced to accompany the show of the same name which ran from February 29th to April 12th, 1964. Artists included Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselman.

"This catalogue, created for an exhibition curated by Pontus Hultén (1924–2006)—director of the Moderna Museet between 1958 and 1973—was its own peculiar work of art. The show was a close read of seven then up-and-coming artists utilizing Pop imagery and populist subjects. This seemingly unfussy staple-bound book contained pictures of artworks that were printed, aside from a few tip-in plates, entirely in duotone. Imagine a world where we might know and remember Roy Lichtenstein’s or Claes Oldenburg’s or George Segal’s art in peachy pink and magenta, muddy green and gray. This volume offered up a subversive Pop idea—that these psychedelic reproductions depicting different paintings and sculptures could have (or should have) appeared this way in real life. It anticipates a world where images as we experience them are and are not what they seem.”

- Alex Da Corte

Jim Dine | Rainbow Faucet

Jim Dine

Rainbow Faucet

New York City, USA: Tanglewood Press Inc., 1966

2 5/8 x 3 3/4 x 5 1/2”

Edition of 75 [+26 AP]

Dine produced Rainbow Faucet for the Tanglewood Press publication Seven Objects in a Box (below), which also included works by Tom Wesselmann (Great American Nude), George Segal (Chicken), Allan D'Arcangelo (Side-View Mirror), Andy Warhol (Kiss), Claes Oldenburg (Baked Potato) and Roy Lichtenstein (Sunrise).

The work is made from sand-cast aluminium, dipped in acrylic paint. Dine often used the rainbow motif in his drawings, paintings and prints, stating in a 1966 interview "When I use objects, I see them as a vocabulary of feelings."

The example at the top is listed as being an artist proof labelled “C”, from the twenty-six proofs labelled from A to Z. It is unclear if it was mounted onto painted wood by the artist or publisher, or the buyer. I have not seen another example like this. 

"The title and subject of Rainbow Faucet show Jim Dine's interest in fusing imagination and everyday life. Dine chose a faucet as the focus for this piece because he spent much of his youth surrounded by tools in his grandfather's hardware store. The artist appreciates the formal and expressive potential of hardware and tools and keeps a stockpile of these in his studio for inspiration. However, he did not render the piece realistically, but rotated the fixture so that it stands upright. The plumbing fixture tapers to a droopy point and emits a rainbow-striped drop of water. Positioned vertically, the faucet looks goofy and resembles a phallus or an animal sticking out its tongue."

- Smithsonian American Art Museum

Owens Art Gallery

Last month the Owens Art Gallery launched a new section of their website, detailing all of the publications produced or available from the gallery. 

Mount Alison University’s sole imprint, the Owens’ publishing program has been active since the 1960s.

Available titles include works by or about Anna Torma, Derek Sullivan, Leah Garnett, Rita McKeough,Erik Edson, Ray Fenwick, Daniel Barrow, Andrea Morton, Garry Neill Kennedy, David Hoffos, Diane Borsato, Thaddeus Holownia, George Bures Miller, Jim Dine, Alex Coville, and myself. 

Alongside numerous monographs, the Owens has also published group exhibition catalogues, including the fascinating Warps, Heddles, Shuttles and Sheds: The Art and History of Weaving at Mount Allison University, which I reviewed here, and The Closer Things Are, here. For the latter, I collaborated with Micah Lexier on newspaper interventions that were published locally on the day the exhibition opened in the various towns it traveled to. 

The online catalogue was made  possible thanks to the work of J.E.A. Crake ArtsWork Publications Archive and Distribution Assistant Caitlin Gallant (2025), and 2023 Bourne Internship Community Engagement and Access Assistants Ranz Bontogon (2024) and Sophie Giese (2023).

View the publications here:

https://owensartgallery.com/publications/

This afternoon, the gallery launches a new publication by Thaddeus Holownia and Harry Thurston, 

 at 4:00 pm. Of A Feather is the their third collaborative book project, featuring twenty-one photographs of birds by Holownia, and poetry by Thurston. 

Jim Dine | Rainbow Faucet

Jim Dine
Rainbow Faucet
New York City, USA: Tanglewood Press Inc., 1966
2 5/8 x 3 3/4 x 5 1/2”
Edition of 75

Dine’s contribution to the Tanglewood Press publication Seven Objects in a Box, which also included works by Tom Wesselmann (Great American Nude), George Segal (Chicken), Allan D'Arcangelo (Side-View Mirror), Andy Warhol (Kiss), Claes Oldenburg (Baked Potato) and Roy Lichtenstein (Sunrise).

Rainbow Faucet is made from sand-cast aluminium, dipped in acrylic paint. Dine often used the rainbow motif in his drawings, paintings and prints (see below).


"When I use objects, I see them as a vocabulary of feelings."

- Jim Dine, interview in New York World Journal Tribune, 1966

"The title and subject of Rainbow Faucet show Jim Dine's interest in fusing imagination and everyday life. Dine chose a faucet as the focus for this piece because he spent much of his youth surrounded by tools in his grandfather's hardware store. The artist appreciates the formal and expressive potential of hardware and tools and keeps a stockpile of these in his studio for inspiration. However, he did not render the piece realistically, but rotated the fixture so that it stands upright. The plumbing fixture tapers to a droopy point and emits a rainbow-striped drop of water. Positioned vertically, the faucet looks goofy and resembles a phallus or an animal sticking out its tongue."

- Smithsonian American Art Museum

This Week on Tumblr

This week on tumblr: Seven Objects in a Box.


D'Arcangelo, Dine, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Segal, Warhol, Wesselmann
Seven Objects in a Box
New York City, USA: Tanglewood Press Inc., 1966
Wooden box with stenciled paint artist names and titles, containing multiples by seven artists.
21 1/8 x 16 5/8'
Edition of 75.

http://artistsbooksandmultiples.tumblr.com

Seven Objects in a Box

Dine/D’Arcangelo/Lichtenstein/Oldenburg/Segal/Warhol/Wesselmann
Seven Objects in a Box
New York City, USA: Tanglewood Press Inc., 1966
Wooden box with stenciled paint artist names and titles, containing multiples by seven artists.
21 1/8 x 16 5/8'
Edition of 75


Full listing here:

http://artistsbooksandmultiples.blogspot.ca/2012/03/seven-objects-in-box.html

(updated to accommodate new/better quality images)