As Guggenheim Museum Bilbao remains one of the de-facto centers of fine art in Spain, it continues to challenge the norm through one of its latest exhibits, Signs and Objects: Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection.

An often-maligned movement, pop art originated in England in the late 1950s as a response by the economic vitality of the post-World War II era. It took inspiration from a number of advertisements and billboards, pulp magazines and newspapers, and even comic books. It challenged the preconceived value and notions of high-art and placed emphasis on free-flowing brushstrokes, interspersed with quick-witted humor and irony as it critiques consumerism. It unabashedly defied the preconceived notions of what art should be.

Often described as “gimmicky” and perhaps even “cheap,” pop art was looked down upon for its supposed lack of depth and the unintended glorification of consumerism, especially when compared to traditional art forms.

Today, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao honors the Pop Art movement through the works of 17 artists from Columbia, Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Typically a male-dominated movement, the museum likewise consciously chose to spotlight the creations of female and people of color (POC) artists who previously have not been given the opportunities they rightfully deserve.

Signs and Objects, as its name implies, focuses on the four major Pop Art categories, as defined by the prolific English art critic and curator Lawrence Alloway, who also had a curatorial stint at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The distinctions are as follows: Ready Mades or Rebuilt Objects, Objects and Flat Painting, Paintings of Objects, and Painting of Signs and Signs. These were then split into two rooms — one for objects, and the other for signs to further demarcate the two styles. The museum pays homage to some of the most iconic works of the era as it reimagines them with a renewed context for the modern age.

Enough from me and let’s go through some of the sights on display.

James Rosenquist’s Flamingo Capsule (1970) is dedicated to three astronauts who perished in the Apollo I training session flashfire in 1967. We noticed the fire in an enclosed space as it sets aflame to other paraphernalia floating aboard the ship.