Art booklet 'Pop art'

What do Marilyn Monroe, soup cans, and rubber clouds have in common? They feature together on a new stamp issue by bpost, dedicated to the colorful, bold, and often surprising art movement known as Pop Art. Ten iconic works from the collection of the SMAK in Ghent were selected to capture the essence of this art form: clear, recognizable, and brimming with meaning. Issue date: April 13, 2026.

What is Pop Art?

Pop art emerged in the 50s and 60s in the United States and Great Britain as a reaction to the elitist art of modernism. Artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein brought everyday life into the gallery. No mythological scenes or inner struggles, but cans of soup, cartoon characters, advertisements, and stars from popular culture.

Artistic Director of the SMAK, Philippe Van Cauteren, aptly summarizes it in a public lecture: “Pop art is like a pedestal for the everyday. For a banana, a newspaper article, a space helmet, or a detergent.” Artists no longer used only brushes, but set to work with industrial techniques, printing methods, and mass production. Anything could be art, as long as you looked at it with an open mind.

A colorful selection from the SMAK

For the stamp series, bpost, in collaboration with SMAK, selected ten artworks that together showcase the richness of Pop Art. Naturally, you will find international greats among them, such as:

• Andy Warhol with his iconic Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's Soup,
• Roy Lichtenstein met Modern Painting with Black Sun,
• Tom Wesselmann with the sizzling Great American Nude #45 (1963).
• Martial Raysse met Miss Nice

But Belgian voices are also featured:

• Raoul De Keyser with his poetic Box and landscape with rubber cloud,
• Evelyne Axell with Esprit Critique, a feminist look at female representation,
• Etienne Elias, Guy Degobert and Panamarenko complete the fresh mix.

Each stamp invites the viewer to take a closer look at Pop Art, literally and figuratively. Several works come from the special MatthysColle collection, built up by Ghent neuropsychiatrist Roger Matthys (1920-2016) and his wife Hilda Colle (1919-2004). They collected modern art and had an eye for new movements in the 20th ^century . Pop Art was given a special place in their collection. The SMAK has 39 works from this unique collection on loan. Pop Art wants not only to be looked at, but also questioned. What is art? What is kitsch? What does a soup can say about our consumption habits? According to Philippe Van Cauteren, museums are places of doubt and searching, but also of curiosity and wonder. And Pop Art stimulates precisely that: wonder at the ordinary.

Stamps

1. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, 1967
2. Roy Lichtenstein, Modern Painting with Black Sun, 1967
3. Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #45, 1963
4. Guy Degobert, Red work lamp, bananas, 1974
5. Raoul De Keyser, Box and Landscape with Rubber Cloud, 1967-1968
6. Panamarenko, Feltra, 1966 / Sabam Belgium 2026
7. Etienne Elias, Bed for Two People, 1968
8. Evelyne Axell, Critical Thinking, 1970
9. Andy Warhol, Campbell’s soup (Chicken Noodle)
10. Martial Raysse, Miss Nice, 1963

Bron: Philanews (bpost)