7 Pop Art Masterpieces You Can See Outside US

Well, Pop Art is mostly an US thing. It's nothing bad, but it means that for the art lovers from other continents it's way harder to find a Warhol or other Lichtenstein hanging on a local museum's wall. But if you live in Europe and you're a real Pop Art fan, there is one place you should go. It's Museum Ludwig in Köln which has the most com­pre­hen­sive Pop Art col­lec­tion out­side of the Unit­ed States - in addition to be the third-largest Pi­cas­so Col­lec­tion in the world, one of the most im­por­tant col­lec­tions of Ex­pres­sion­ism, and an in­ter­na­tio­n­al­ly sig­ni­f­i­cant col­lec­tion of pho­tog­ra­phy. All because of two collectors, Peter and Irene Lud­wig who in 1976 do­nat­ed their inim­itable col­lec­tion of Amer­i­can Pop Art to the Ci­ty of Cologne, with the stip­u­la­tion that the ci­ty build an in­de­pen­dent mu­se­um for the new col­lec­tion. In the 1960s they have became enthusiastic about the new movement, which they have spotted at document 4 in Kassel. The Ludwigs were fas­ci­nat­ed by the im­me­di­a­cy and fresh­ness of the artists’ ap­proach to re­al­i­ty. Roy Licht­en­stein, Andy Warhol, Claes Ol­d­en­burg, James Rosen­quist, Robert Rauschen­berg, and Jasper Johns were of their own gen­er­a­tion. Here you have, 7 Pop Art masterpieces you can see at Museum Ludwig:

1. Andy Warhol, Two Elvis

[caption id="attachment_5302" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Andy Warhol, Two Elvis, 1963, silkscreen on canvas, 206 x 148 cm, Andy Warhol Artwork, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln[/caption]

2. Roy Licht­en­stein, M-Maybe (A Girl’s Pic­ture)

[caption id="attachment_5303" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Roy Licht­en­stein M-Maybe (A Girl’s Pic­ture), 1965[/caption]

3. Jasper Johns, Flag on Orange Field

[caption id="attachment_5305" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Jasper Johns, Flag on Orange Field, 1957, encaustic on canvas, 167 x 124 cm, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln[/caption]

4. Robert Rauschenberg, Black Market

[caption id="attachment_5306" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Robert Rauschenberg, Black Market, 1961, combine painting, collage (oil, metal, wood, canvas), 152 x 127 cm, © Robert Rauschenberg; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013, Photo: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln[/caption]

5. Claes Ol­d­en­burg, Soft Wash­s­tand

[caption id="attachment_5307" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Claes Ol­d­en­burg, Soft Wash­s­tand, 1966[/caption]  

6. Roy Lichtenstein : Takka-Takka (1962),

[caption id="attachment_5308" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Roy Lichtenstein, Takka-Takka, 1962[/caption]

7. Robert Rauschenberg : Odalisk

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="620"] Robert Rauschenberg, Odalisk, 1955/1958, © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation[/caption]