"Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now"

"Soft Pay Phone" by Claes Oldenburg (1963) 

When I think of the Guggenheim, it's the rotunda that comes to mind. It's pretty iconic. Not surprisingly, that's where the lead exhibit on view can be seen. But the Museum has side rooms as well, which is where "Guggenheim Pop:1960 to Now" is now on display. I enjoyed it much more than the works in the rotunda by Carol Bove.

Pop Art was a movement that pushed back against the rigors of traditional fine art. Artists working in this style looked to everyday objects and television and even comic books for their inspiration. The movement came on the heels of Abstract Expressionism and the non-objective canvases of works by the likes of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. What a contrast.   

Claes Oldenburg's "Soft-Pay Telephone" is a prime example of Pop Art. But why a phone? And why is it so baggy? 

If you think back to the 1960s, pay phones were a fact of life. Oldenburg created this work in 1961, well before the first mobile phone -- weighing in at two pounds -- was invented in 1973. Even the shoe phone, compliments of "Get Smart," was years away. So the object is something everyone would have related to who saw it. 

The bagginess is another thing all together. A couple of years earlier, Oldenburg created an installation called "The Store" that featured plastic replicas of ordinary objects, from clothing to food to, yes, a pay phone. The lumpy goods were stand-ins for the human body, which is why the phone sags a bit. I could have lived without thinking about that analogy. 

"Pearls" by Jim Dine (1961)

Jim Dine is known for affixing everyday objects to his canvases. Often, these items were sourced from the streets of New York. And so the "pearls" for which this painting is named are not pearls at all but small rubber balls cut in half. 

You might have noticed that some of the letters in the word "Pearls" are blurred together. This was not just sloppiness on the artist's part. Instead, the style represents the blurring of the lines between language and physical reality. I like it. 

In addition to his conceptual art, Dine is known as one of the founders of the Happenings movement. Happenings were improvisational participatory art events that included the audience. They were typically held in art galleries or lofts or similar spaces that allowed people to freely join the action. My law school roommate and I once inadvertently attended a happening at a restaurant in California.Talk about feeling like a deer in the headlights. We remained firmly in our seats with baffled expressions on our faces. 

"Julia" by Kara Romero (1977)

I was excited to come upon a work by Cara Romero, an artist I was introduced to in the "Something Borrowed, Something New" exhibit now on at Sarasota Art Museum. I've become a fan of Romero's photographic storytelling. 

"Julia" is an image from Romero's series entitled First American Dolls in which she presents Native Americans as dolls in life-size boxes. This made me wonder whether there is a Native American American Girl doll. The answer is "yes." Kaya'aton'my (or Kaya) debuted in 2002 and was developed after extended consultation with members of the Nez Perce tribe.

Romero's intention in creating this series was to represent the stories of Native Americans in an accurate manner rather than as a stereotype. In this work, the artist's niece wears a traditional dress known as a "manta" made from hand-woven cloth. The objects in the work include baskets woven by the artist's grandmother and an ancestor's drum. It doesn't get much more personal than that. 

For more on Romero and her work, click here. And to see her "TV Indians" on view at Sarasota Art Museum, click here. Better yet, come see the work in person if you're in the area. "Something Borrowed, Something New" runs through September 27th.

With the July 28, 2026 version of "Comedian" by Maurizio Cattelan

I'll leave you with "Comedian" by Maurizio Catelan, a work that never fails to garner interest. This isn't the first time I've encountered this unusual artwork. I attended Art Basel in 2019 and was among the thousands of people to stop by and see a banana duct taped to a wall. 

The original work sold for a whopping $120,000. Then, in what can only be referred to as "monkey see, monkey do," another collector snapped up the second "edition" of the work, with a third edition going for $150,000. I thought that was crazy at the time. But what's really bananas is that in 2024, "Comedian" sold for -- wait for it -- $6.2 million at an auction at Sothebys. The purchaser was Jason Suh, a "cryptocurrency entrepreneur." That actually kind of makes sense. This edition was gifted to the Guggenheim, with the collector getting a hefty tax write off. 

I suspect one of the many things you're thinking is "What happens when the banana rots?" Cattelan considered that issue, of course. The artwork comes with a set of instructions about how to replace it, which I would dearly love to see. "Go to Publix and purchase a near ripe banana" could be the starting point. For more on Cattelan and his conceptual artwork, click here. And with that, it's time for breakfast.