Chapter 19 of your text introduces West Coast Pop artists, Thiebaud, Kienholz, Jess, and Ruscha, in this way:

"America's West Coast offered an especially sympathetic audience for early experiments in Pop art, as evidenced by the reception of Warhol's first major exhibition in 1962. The region's investment in the film industry as well as its comparatively young cultural institutions tended to mitigate the influence of traditional aesthetic hierarchies and expectations. The four Californian artists discussed here - Wayne Thiebaud, Edward Kienholz, Jess, and Edward Ruscha - made work that is only tangentially related to Pop" (1).

To prepare for this discussion:

• Read Chapter 19, "Poetics of the 'New Gomorrah': West Coast Artists," pages 483-486.
  • These pages cover the artists, Thiebaud, Kienholz, Jess, and Ruscha.
• View the four artists' artwork contained on these pages.
• Select one piece of artwork from one of these artists that speaks to you.

Please respond to the following in a post of 150 to 200 words:

• Post a screen shot of the artwork you selected.
• Describe what you think the artist's intent was in creating the work.
• Offer your best artistic reaction to what speaks to you about this piece of art.

Note: To help get you started, you might want to view one person's response to Edward Kienholz's The State Hospital. Please do not feel constrained by this example. This is just one person's artistic reaction to a piece of art. Also, it goes without saying: don't use this person's language in your response. That's called plagiarism.