Famous Works of Art in Popular Culture

Book excerpt: Certain works of art-Mona Lisa, the Statue of Liberty, Rodin's The Thinker, Grant Wood's American Gothic-are famous to everyone: those who love art and those who are generally indifferent to it. This volume considers 29 works of art and examines the ways in which they have transcended the art world and become facets of the popular imagination. Sperling (art, Denison U.) considers how 30 great works of art-such as the Mona Lisa and the Statue of Liberty-have become part of popular culture. She begins by exploring the role of travel, tourism, photography, and books in making certain ancient monuments world famous. Other topics include, for example, how coffee-table books helped make a number of Italian Renaissance paintings ubiquitous, how marketing embedded a number of modern memorials in the public consciousness, and how twentieth-century artists endeavor to strike a balance between critical and popular fame. Thirty art works that have become facets of the popular imagination are examined.