Joe Light

Joe Light (1934–2005), Pony, 1988

Enamel on wood, 36 x 38 in.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Compared with the American art-historical movement of the 1960s, Joe Light's particular brand of pop art is unexpectedly sober and serious. Light never pokes fun at the tacky side of American society; he never uses art to make an ironic point about material culture. The only connections Light has with the world of high art are its remnants that have made their way to the flea markets or those that have come to him diminished by the limitations of his TV screen. He fashions a religion from this high-to-low fusion. He redeems the bric-a-brac, honors it, and makes it respectable, even holy.