cover image Pop Art Is: Popular, Transient, Expendable, Low Cost, Mass Produced, Young, Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business

Pop Art Is: Popular, Transient, Expendable, Low Cost, Mass Produced, Young, Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business

. Gagosian Gallery, $80 (165pp) ISBN 978-0-300-13899-3

The publication of this graceful, gorgeous survey marks the 50 year anniversary of Richard Hamilton's famous letter defining the concepts of Pop Art, a copy of which appears in the first pages. Perhaps even more instructive is the brief Greil Marcus essay that follows, in which he uses Hamilton's pioneering collage Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? to elucidate much of the Pop movement's major tenets: its embrace of banality, commercialism, whimsy and ugliness, its instant relatability and endless capacity for reproduction-in short, the image's ability to ""lodge in your body... as cancers that would consume you from within."" Almost entirely given over to plates, the book covers all the major artists of the original movement-Warhol, Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and company-and a great deal of more recent work, much from the past 10 years, including pieces from Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami. Other features include a photographic essay by Louise Lawler and a conversation among multimedia artist Dan Graham and modern architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Beautifully designed, with vibrant, high-quality plates, this is an excellent greatest-hits overview for a revolutionary art movement that continues to thrive and evolve.