Pop art has become one of the most recognizable styles of modern art. Unlike most art before the 50s, pop art was a new approach to representational visual communication. This became a major directional shift of modernism, where the works are inspired by the “pop” of the present; from the mid-1950s onward, artists who drew on a popular imagery were part of an international phenomenon. Drawing from mass media and popular culture, the subject matter became far from traditional “high art” themes.
Following in the footsteps of Abstract Expressionists, artists were inspired by commonplace objects and the people of everyday life, hoping to elevate this new art form into a fine art. How and why pop art reacted to abstract expressionism is a subject of its own, as well as the historical happenings between the 50s and 60s that put the “pop” into art (Wolf). How exactly was pop art forming? While the actual term of “Pop art” in writing has been attributed to several individuals, the first artwork to use the word “Pop” was produced by Paolozzi.
His collage, I Was a Rich Man’s Plaything (1947) contained cut-up images of a pinup girl, containing popular logos, World War II fighter plane, and a man’s hand holding a pistol out of which burst the word “POP! ” in a cloud. In 1952, a gathering of artists in London calling themselves the Independent Group, began meeting regularly to discuss topics such as mass culture’s place in fine art. Britain in the early 1950s was still emerging from the austerity of the post-war years, and its citizens were conflicted about American popular culture.
While the group was suspicious of its commercial character, they were enthusiastic about the rich world pop culture seemed to promise for the future. The imagery they discussed at length included western movies, science fiction, comic books, billboards, automobile designs, and rock and roll music. More artists started emerging from England, inspiring and inventing new ideas and techniques that would soon spread (Wolf). The two well-known artists, Paolozzi and Hamilton, would first start to capture audiences through collage work.
While they both took a liking towards America’s popular culture and its mass products, they also criticized the excess. Hamilton would take various images of mass media and consciously create a collage of meaning. This was definitely a reaction to the post-war consumerism culture. Commercialism was at a new high, while just finishing the Korean War in 1955, soon after the Vietnam War would consume media and the subject matter of artists around.
One would like to think that the popular new art form was “fun” and “colorful” but if you asked the creatures of the art, I believe they would have a very purposeful and detailed response as to what the subject matter and meaning of their art was. James Rosenquist was another collage artist with subject matters of celebrities, and often times inserting a political message. Having a background of billboard painting, his work would turn into monumental pieces, larger than life works wider than 20 feet.
Because this art was so exposed and uniquely different, there were some that would say these works were offensive, for example Peter Saul’s artwork (Wolf). During the mid 1950s, New York artists inspired by abstract expressionism would break from their formalist teachings. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg are prime examples of making art that mixed newfound images with traditional materials. “These artists, along with others, later became grouped in the movement known as Neo-Dada.
The now classic New York pop art of Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol emerged in the 1960s in the footsteps of Neo-Dadaists. ” Lichtenstein was inspired by subject matter derived from comic books. Still incorporating the bright colors and clear outlines popular pop art took on, he began to use the method of Ben-Day dots but hand-painting the usually machine generated dots. Andy Warhol on the other hand had a distinct style that took from the mass consumer culture. Warhol transitioned from hand painting to screen-printing to enhance his large-scale works. Warhol’s insistence on mechanical reproduction rejected notions of artistic authenticity and genius.
Instead, he acknowledged the commodification of art, proving that paintings were no different from cans of Campbell’s soup; both have material worth and could be bought and sold like consumer goods. ” Pieces by Warhol like Marily Diptych (1962), further iconized Marilyn and appealed to the public, still today we associate his art with her face. Skull Project by Andy Warhol LA differed from New York by moving beyond replication to “incorporate experience and evoke a particular feeling, attitude, or idea, hile also pushing the boundaries between high art and popular culture” (Wolf). What did the artists do with all the subjects around, the consumer goods and images? No longer subjecting themselves to applied design, but took their own “perfection” to expose and modify their subject to obtain a new effect.
These artists wanted to stray from the perfectionist ideal society of routine and comfort and make commonplace imagery transparent, which isolated and exposed the manipulative elements of design, separating design from art. Whereas the designers had merely displayed products, the artists were now displaying designed products. ” This was liberating, and pop art was unusual enough to provoke reflection. There were no boundaries, or definitions, but only works left suspended for the viewer. This may be why it resonated with so many artists still today. Small things become enormous. Everything blurs, and the alienated abundance of things is whirled round and round as if sucked into the currents of a poisonous, infernal maelstrom, into the nightmarish chaos of a roaring, drunken mass.
The commonplace acquires a new value in these pictures, and stereotypes are deconstructed. Things come and go, seem unfamiliar and strange. Many pop artists were trying to break the stereotypes that brand names displayed about making life “more attractive” and “enjoyable;” consumer goods were becoming the symbols or the era, making history components of a new mass culture. In the start of the 60s, the dollar had become a symbol of superiority, and economic power. Artists looked beyond the facade of the now hyped symbol and exposed it as average, portraying the dollar as alienated and debased.
Andy Warhol did a serious on the dollar bill, expressing that the dollar is mere paper (Osterwold). Great American Nude n°98 by Tom Wesselmann Artists have spoken in simple and clear terms about their works and the ideas they wished to convey through them, yet they were seldom listened to. One can say that pop art drew a visual environment of modern civilization. For the first time, art was not drawing lines of the visible and invisible. Overall Pop artists reflected a complete absence of political intent; there was no criticism of capitalist society, and even if the subject exists it oes not undermine the social consensus. Instead, the works display hidden mechanisms of society.
Traditional techniques were not thrown out the window but instead the space, plane, form, and color are intended to transcend, taking on a new approach yet still keeping arts basic functions. “The standards of aesthetic expression were set solely by art itself. Artists were precluded from looking at reality, and every attempt to artistically and aesthetically digest real impressions that had fallen under the curse of the inartistic and historically outmoded. When Pop first emerged in England, America, and Europe, raised eyebrows and indignation were accompanied by a profound disappointment on the part of many artists and critics.
This unexpected outcome of a decade of abstract expressionism was hardly a welcome one, since it dashed hopes for the rise of a “new humanism: known as the “New Image of Man’ in America, and “New Figuration’ in Europe…For other observers, however, such a brash and uncritical reflection of our environment was a breath of fresh air. These works still hold an appeal for young generations, despite their now classical look and distance from current concerns. ” Artists are always looking for fresh ideas, and it seems as though the emergence of pop art starting from the 50s can never be reinvented but instead will forever give endless inspiration to the base of today’s art (Honnef). In France a new form of art, much like American pop art, was Nouveau Realisme. Beginning with a critic Pierre Restany in 1960. Nouveau Realisme by definition was new ways of perceiving the real.
In Yves Klein’s workshop, nine artists all with unique new waves of art, signed a declaration. You could see this new art forming, one example is the work of Villegle, whose technique incorporating posters and cutting through these materials to create a new image while still keeping the “decollage” technique. While this movement still mirrored the American Pop artists’ commercial culture, Nouveau Realisme had its own twist focusing more on objects than painting. “As is the case with Spoerri, whose “snare-pictures” used food, cutlery, and tabletops as artistic media. Just a few of these ingenious artists were Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Arman, Francois Dufrene, Raymond Hains, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Christo. Looking at the work and different styles of each individual, one may notice an underlying theme of performance art being developed and even interactive art. These works became cutting edge but in a different context of the common pop art trends (Wolf). Works of Yves Klein After World War II, America experienced an economic and political growth.
The inexpensive mass produced homes, rock and roll of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe films, and the television replacing radio, are all aspects that kick started pop artists. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, a cultural revolution would take place where the Vietnam War started mass protests all over, and the Civil Rights Movement sought for equality, while the women’s liberation movement was striding forward. These are all pivotal moments in history that surely inspired artist to express thoughts through their work. These emerging artists sought to combine fine art traditions with pop culture elements from the life surrounding them.
It was the first time where the art created was so widely mixed with different techniques, mediums, elements, and messages with also incorporating printmaking and photography. Artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg took familiar objects such as flags and beer bottles as subjects for their paintings, while British artist Richard Hamilton used magazine imagery. The latter’s definition of Pop Art – “popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business” – stressed its everyday, commonplace values.
Combining all these elements to art was an unintentional audience grabber. Once the public was turned onto pop art, it became quite iconic for the subjects of these pieces (“Pop Art”). Hamilton once said that the “point of the exhibition was not so much to find art forms as to test values. ” Although some groups were worried about “creating a new style,” it is safe to say that the artists who went for it put in 100%. “Some would say that this art form is about accepting the materials and expanding from that point.
These art pieces are not meant to provide a clear answer to every question. Works of art change their nature depending on the point of view from which they are seen, and yet nevertheless retain a validity that transcends the idiosyncrasies of time. People see an aspect of the absolute in this. ” It is no coincidence that pop art started emerging all at once. British and American artists’ broke the conventional ideas and yet at the same time many others artists as well, because they were afraid to be exposed in a way that separated them from the conventional artist.
Art is a continuous rule breaking expression that reflects the status of the system. Ambivalence is a characteristic trait of art. Ambivalence is that multiplicity of meaning which enables art to overcome its ties with its own period. ” The location of an artist can give the viewer a better insight on the subject matter but there is no black or white Depiction fir the meaning of the art is individual to the artist (Honnef). Work today inspired by Andy Warhol How long did pop art last? Pop art fell out during the 1970s, and the public began to shift to more performance driven pieces and installations However the resurgence of paint in the late 70’s brought back Pop art styles in the 80’s.
Artists like Warhol left an imprint particularly within the New York world during this time period. Neo-Pop became popular during this time as well, picking up where pop art left off. One of the leading figures of Neo-Pop movement was Jeff Koons, whos’ appropriation of pop culture icons such as Michael Jackson and mass-produced object like Hoove vacuum cleaners futher pushed the boundaries of high art. Pop art completed the Modernist movement in the early 1970s, with its modern subject matter that carried on.
Times were and have changed, and the pop art was simply holding up a mirror of everything society had reflected. Pop art is still inspiring to artists today, for it paved the way to contemporary and modern art. Funk art, born from pop art is still a continuing movement, seeing as society keeps manufacturing items that end up in the trash (Wolf). The man who sits alone and puts his thoughts on canvas, having his art talk louder than his own mouth. Every artist in the Pop Art Movement was speaking loudly.
Whether the subject matter was war, peace, society, consumerism, individualism, or sexuality, all messages were spoken freely and loudly for everyone to interpret. There is a reason why Pop art is one of the most popular art movements in the Modern Era. Pop art relies on extracting material from its context and isolating it or associating it with other subjects for contemplation. Even during the Dada Movement of anti-war protests, the art visually may not have appealed to as many aesthetically, but is still comparable in fame with the colorful and appealing Pop Art due to its strong subject matter.
Pop Art continues to be hailed as a success to this day, whether we’re talking about original pieces selling for big money, or prints selling in huge numbers. It became clear that pop art was much more than just a statement and it’s hard to ignore it. You can see it wherever you go. It’s in public places and even advertising, as it was used initially in the 1950s. Artwork today reflects so much of the Pop Art Movement and its simple yet complex technique; still the works of renowned artists from this time inspires people.
Many traits of pop art can be recognized in the 21st century. Anywhere from graphic design, web design to advertisement. Today designers create fascinating prints, posters, digital illustration, fashion and so on, keeping pop art features alive. This can be seen through the strong colors, dotted images, serious of repeated images on print. So much of these styles are still displayed. Pop art was simply inspirational to all during its time and lives on today (Marinica).
