1962: Tom Wesselmann, Still Life No. 20

Lawrence Alloway, a British art critic is sometimes known as the person that coined the term "Pop Art", primarily to designate American mass media popular culture, specifically Hollywood films.

"A good example of the kind of trade in signs and symbols that Alloway mentions is Tom Wesselmann’s Still Life No.20 1962 (fig.1). In a similar way to the exhibits in This Is Tomorrow, the codes of fine art and popular art are mixed in Wesselmann’s painting...Wesselmann’s work depicted the consumer goods of the post-war era with particular fidelity, through the incorporation of both ready-made objects and a scrupulously tidy method of depiction. This approach, which faithfully renders the objects in question, simultaneously displays their artificiality as signs. Analogous to the blurred codes of ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture, Wesselmann blurs the codes of representation, making us wonder whether the glass of cola, for example, is painted or collaged. [more...]