Story of Art Lecture Series | What Is Art Anyway? Abstract Expressionism & Pop Art
Description
Bassam Freiha Art Foundation invites you to the next lecture in The Story of Art series, led by Dr. Michaela Watrelot, Curator and Director of Exhibitions at BFAF.
Titled What Is Art Anyway? | Abstract Expressionism & Pop Art, this upcoming session explores a defining moment in the twentieth century when artists began to radically challenge traditional ideas of art, authorship, and meaning.
Following the Second World War, artistic practices shifted dramatically. Some artists turned inward, using movement and emotion to create deeply personal works, while others embraced mass media and consumer culture as subjects for art itself. Through the works of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and other influential figures, the lecture examines how Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art transformed the relationship between art and everyday life.
From large-scale abstract canvases to imagery inspired by advertising and popular culture, these movements redefined what art could be and expanded the possibilities of artistic expression in the modern world.
Dr. Michaela Watrelot
Dr. Michaela Watrelot is a curator, educator, and author with a PhD in History of Art from Charles University in Prague. At Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, she leads exhibition planning, education, and strategic partnerships. Her expertise spans 19th- and 20th-century art, public art commissions, and art market studies, and she is the author of Wilhelm von Bode and the American Art Market: The Rudolphe Kann Collection (Routledge, 2023).