Lawrence Alloway

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Lawrence Alloway (1926-1990) used the term pop art in the late 1950s to indicate that art has a basis in the popular culture of its day and takes from it a faith in the power of images. Born in London. No University degrees. Started writing art reviews for "Art News and Reviews" in 1943.

Alloway was a promoter of the group of abstract British 'Constructvist' artists that emerged after the second world war writing the 1954 book Nine Abstract Artists that featured them: Robert Adams, Terry Frost, Adrian Heath, Anthony Hill, Roger Hilton, Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, Victor Pasmore and William Scott.

Alloway's theory of art reflecting the concrete materials of modern life gave way to an interest in mass-media and consumerism. Alloway was a member of the Independent Group and lectured on his theory of a circular link between popular cultural low art and high art. From 1955 to 1960 he was Assistant Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts organising two landmark exhibitions of American Art. In 1956 Alloway contributed to organising the exhibition This is Tomorrow and in reviewing that show and other works he had seen on a trip to the US in a 1958 article first used the term Pop Art.

In 1961 Alloway moved to New York with his wife, realist painter Sylvia Sleigh, and was appointed as a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum where he supported of "pop" artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Claus Oldenberg, and Andy Warhol. In the 1970s he wrote for The Nation and Artforum and lectured at the State University of New York.