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Joan Kron, now 98, is preparing to publish The Renegade Housewives of Pop Art in December, according to Hyperallergic. The memoir recounts her work organizing early Pop Art exhibitions and commissioning Roy Lichtenstein’s 1967 Super Sunset Billboard, whose remake is on view at the Whitney Museum.
Joan Kron, 98, is preparing to publish The Renegade Housewives of Pop Art in December, bringing her account of Philadelphia’s early Pop Art scene to readers. The memoir revisits her work organizing exhibitions and commissioning Roy Lichtenstein’s 1967 billboard, a remake of which is now on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In an interview with Hyperallergic ahead of the memoir’s release, Kron recalled how she and collaborator Audrey Sabol organized Art ’63: A New Vocabulary at Philadelphia’s Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association. The 1962 exhibition featured artists including Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg. Hyperallergic describes it as the first Pop Art exhibition on the East Coast, held days before the Sidney Janis Gallery’s The New Realists.
Kron said she proposed putting art on billboards during planning for Philadelphia’s 1967 Arts Festival. After the committee rejected the idea, she and Sabol pursued it independently. Kron recalled that Lichtenstein had offered an image of a sunset; the pair later recognized that a handball backboard behind Sabol’s house had the same shape. Billboard owner Walter Stait painted the work, and the organizers held a party to promote the project.
The resulting Super Sunset Billboard gave the billboard proposal a public example, though Kron’s larger plan to place art on billboards across the city did not happen then. Hyperallergic reports that a remake is included in the Whitney’s retrospective Roy Lichtenstein: Like New. The source does not give the exhibition’s closing date or the memoir’s exact publication date.
A Billboard Idea Finds New Reach
The story links a specific artwork to Kron’s broader effort to bring contemporary art into public space. Her proposal met resistance in Philadelphia, she told Hyperallergic, but the billboard itself drew publicity and became a lasting part of the project’s history. Its remake now appears in a major museum retrospective, connecting the 1967 commission to renewed attention to Lichtenstein’s work.
Kron’s recollections also add a perspective on how artists and organizers built the early Pop Art scene beyond galleries. The memoir is presented as her account of working with artists including Andy Warhol, Christo and Robert Rauschenberg. Hyperallergic also notes her later career as a journalist at New York Magazine, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
The source recounts that, roughly 40 years after Kron’s billboard proposal, Britain held a two-week Art Everywhere UK program involving billboards and other public advertising spaces. A similar program followed in the United States a year later, according to Kron’s account. Those later projects provide context for her idea, though the interview does not establish a direct link between them and her 1967 effort.
Roy Lichtenstein Super Sunset Billboard replica
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Philadelphia’s Early Pop Art Organizers
Kron and Sabol organized Art ’63: A New Vocabulary at the YM/YWHA in Philadelphia in 1962. Hyperallergic says the exhibition included artists who would also appear in the Sidney Janis Gallery’s The New Realists, which opened days later. The article characterizes the Y exhibition as the East Coast’s first Pop Art show. That claim is the publication’s framing, rather than a statement independently documented in the interview excerpt.
The organizers later produced artist multiples and hosted the Velvet Underground’s first Philadelphia concert, according to Hyperallergic. The report says the concert nearly led to Kron’s removal from the Y, but later became a point of pride in the organization’s history. These projects help explain why Kron describes herself as a “renegade housewife” of Pop Art: she was an organizer working outside the established gallery system.
““We started a committee to save billboards.””
— Joan Kron, speaking to Hyperallergic
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Publication and Display Details
Hyperallergic gives the memoir’s release timing as December but does not identify a year, exact publication date, publisher or format in the supplied report. The article also does not say how long the Lichtenstein retrospective, and the billboard remake within it, will remain on view.
The interview presents Kron’s recollections of the 1962 exhibition, the 1967 commission and later public art programs. The report does not provide independent documentation for every historical detail or establish that the later billboard campaigns resulted from her original proposal. No further publication or exhibition announcements are included in the source.
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Memoir Release and Whitney Retrospective
The next stated milestone is the December release of The Renegade Housewives of Pop Art. Readers can look to the publisher’s eventual listing for the exact date and edition details, which are absent from Hyperallergic’s report.
The Lichtenstein billboard remake is described as currently on view at the Whitney Museum as part of Roy Lichtenstein: Like New. The source supplies no closing date, so visitors should check the museum’s exhibition information for current scheduling.
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Key Questions
Who is Joan Kron?
Joan Kron is an arts organizer and journalist who helped organize early Pop Art exhibitions in Philadelphia. Hyperallergic also reports that she later wrote for New York Magazine, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
What is The Renegade Housewives of Pop Art?
It is Kron’s forthcoming memoir, described by Hyperallergic as an account of her experiences with artists including Andy Warhol, Christo and Robert Rauschenberg. The report says it is expected in December but does not specify the year or exact date.
How did the Lichtenstein billboard come about?
Kron said she and Audrey Sabol pursued a billboard art project after a festival committee rejected her proposal. They used a handball backboard as the site for Lichtenstein’s sunset image, and billboard owner Walter Stait painted it.
Where can visitors see the billboard remake?
Hyperallergic reports that a remake of Super Sunset Billboard is on view in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Roy Lichtenstein: Like New retrospective. The report does not give the exhibition’s end date.
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