Swiss Pop Art

When we think of pop art, we think of the vanguard American pop artists: Andy Warhol and his iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans, the Ben-Day dotted comic strip style of Roy Lichtenstein, and the collages of appropriated materials Robert Rauschenberg called his “combines.” Less well known—but well worth discovering—are the Swiss artists who contributed to this international movement of pivotal importance, taking up the trends coming out of the United States and Britain and developing a distinctly Swiss school of pop art.

The first comprehensive overview of pop art in Switzerland, Swiss Pop Art takes readers through the Swiss pop art scene in the 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by American pop art’s provocative images and inventive motifs, artists like Susi and Ueli Berger, Fernando Bordoni, Carl Bucher, Emilienne Farny, Bendicht Fivian, Franz Gertsch, Margrit Jäggli, Urs Lüthi, Markus Müller, Markus Raetz, and Peter Stämpfli created works that sometimes borrowed strongly from their inspirations, yet also clearly bore the stamp of a new Swiss movement within pop art. In addition to the striking visual art of the period, editor Madeleine Schuppli and her fellow contributors demonstrate links to Swiss design, photography, film, music, and fashion. The book also incudes an illustrated timeline that places pop art in the broader art historical context of a period that was as politically, socially, and artistically exceptional in Switzerland as in many other parts of the world.

Vividly illustrated with 340 full-color illustrations, Swiss Pop Art is a must-have for fans of pop art, as well as the many artists and movements it influenced on its way to becoming a defining art movement of its time and beyond.