This two-day symposium explores Pop beyond the mainstream. Organised in collaboration with the Royal College of Art, London, this event engages with new research in different fields and geographies to rethink orthodoxies as well as develop new interpretations of ‘Pop’.

Of particular importance is the often critical nature of these global engagements with Pop. Reacting to the increasing dominance of the American post-war economy and media around the world, Pop art sometimes took the form of a destabilizing reversal of the normative messages associated with American culture and consumerism. This dialectic was effectively and memorably put to use by feminists, political groups and independence movements in order to simultaneously critique the hegemony of the West while drawing on its aesthetic mass appeal and graphic clarity.

To date, the history of Pop art has tended to affirm the hegemonic position of New York. In an attempt to challenge the simple linear trajectory of influence that has dominated most accounts, this symposium will explore Pop beyond the mainstream and open the definition of Pop to critical re-thinking.

image (top): The Front of New-York, 1974, oil on canvas. Collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole. © Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole, cl. Jean-Loup Mathieu

To download the symposium programme, visit: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/conference/global-pop-symposium