Pop Art Movement
Graphic Design HND1
04th March 2015
Tudor: Clare Blackwell
By: Fiona O’Brien.
So where did Pop art originate?? Pop art has become one of the most recognizable styles of
modern art. It is mainly connected to New York but it originated in London in the mid 1950’s and
hit the states in the late 1950’s. Richard Hamilton was really the original in London (the father of
Pop Art) and others who followed around this time was Eduardo Padlozzi.
Above the work of ‘The father of Pop Art’ Richard Hamilton.
Pop art is now most associated with the work of New York artists of the early 1960s such as Andy
Warhol , Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and Claes Oldenburg, but artists who drew on
popular imagery were part of an international phenomenon in various cities from the mid-1950s
onwards. Following the popularity of the abstract Expressionists, Pop's reintroduction of
identifiable imagery (drawn from mass media and popular culture) was a major shift for the
direction of modernism. The subject matter became far from traditional "high art" themes of
morality, mythology, and classic history; rather, Pop artists celebrated commonplace objects and
people of everyday life, in this way seeking to elevate popular culture to the level of fine art.
Perhaps owing to the incorporation of commercial images,
“Pop is everything art hasn't been for the last two decades. It's basically a U-turn back to a
representational visual communication, moving at a break-away speed...Pop is a re-enlistment in
the world...It is the American Dream, optimistic, generous and naïve."
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-pop-art.htm
Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular
culture such as advertising and news. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its
known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. All the artists were taking
influences from everyday items and images around them. It was a movement influenced by the
media and advertisements on bill boards...this is one of the reasons it was so big in New York to
do with the amount of advertisement visually available to the public, even to this day New York
must be the top city in the world for advertisements...which is now evolving to moving images
and big screens.
The progress of billboards on time square over the years.
New York image in the 1950’s
My New York image 1911.
New York image today.
Although pop art began in the late 1950s, in America it was given its greatest impetus during the
1960s. The term "pop art" was officially introduced in December 1962; the occasion was a
"Symposium on Pop Art" organized by the Museum of modern Art. By this time, American
advertising had adopted many elements and inflections of modern art and functioned at a very
sophisticated level.
As the British viewed American popular culture imagery from a somewhat removed perspective,
their views were often instilled with romantic, sentimental and humorous overtones.
Pop art came after post war. There was a population boom, people wanted to have fun. Another
style came from the 60’s which was also quite fun called ‘Op Art’...Bridget Riley is an example of
this...but that’s a different story.
An example of Bridget Riley’s work ‘Op Art’ Optical Illusion Art.
Bridget work reminds me a lot of another great Pop Artist Keith Haring. It reminds me of his
work as he works a lot in black and white. Keith Haring had his very distinctive style and his little
figures are noticeable everywhere. Keith Haring’s work was at a later stage to the Pop Art
movement he was more connected to the 1980’s, he was very connected to the music of the time
& very much involved in the visual of culture which was that of New York he was a white artist
very involved with different cultures bringing rapping, to hip hop to which evolved into House
music....he loved the whole scene including break dancing...a lot of this movement can be clearly
seen in his work. It was a very experiential time for him, it started off being a lot of fun but as
time went by his messages became more political. He became very involved in the education of
H.I.V which was destroying New York at this time & also unfortunately took him in the end.
He drew every minute he could and thought kids how to express themselves through drawing. He
was a street artist with messages and the general public were his viewers, he took the galleries to
the general public and very cleverly in the way he done it. He used advertisement boards in the
subway which were waiting to be filled with a new poster (so they were just a black board)...and
simply drew with a sick of white chalk. People started to notice the drawings, but what I find so
clever about this is the amount of people he reached, how many people use the subway
everyday...even if it was driving trough a station the image would catch your eye. Also the fact it
was just a chalk drawing it was all temporary. He was networking images in his own unique way.
His work became very Popular and he branded himself by opening a shop and selling all sorts of
merchandise from stickers, to cups, to tee shirts...it was an example of mass production...the shop
was called ‘Pop Shop’.
The Pop Shop from the outside and the inside.
Some of Keith Harings distinctive style Drawings.
Another one of Pop Arts most recognised Artist would be Roy Lichtenstein. His time was before
Keith Haring.
Roy Lichtenstein art was about turning comic cuttings into art by enlarging the image. He was
born in New York City in 1923 to a middle class family. He went to a private school were art was
not on the curriculum. He began as a teenager to paint and draw on his own. Then the war came
and he found himself drafted into the war. He was sent to England, France, Belgium and
Germany. After the war he returned to Ohio State University to Graduate, he was hired as an
instructor and he began to have exhibitions in Cleveland, New York, & throughout the 50’s
painting in Cubist inspired impressionist styles .
This was a time when American art was dominated by the abstract/ expressionist painters such
as Jackson Pollock and Frank Stella.
Pollock at work.
Frank Stella above.
"Firuzabad" (1970) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco Museum.
"Because abstraction had to be imageless and I'd gone in the wrong direction."
Their works seemed to have no relevance to the day to day world at all. Prefiguring Pop Art. In
1955 he moved back to New York to work as an assistant professor of art at Rutgers New Jersey
University.
Popular imagery/products that Roy Lichtenstein recreated were: Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse &
Donald Duck. He never painted N.Y.C himself, it was its advertisements & artefacts that interested
him most. He was recognising the power of media and its visual impact on society. Advertisement
to sell things.
It was in the early 1960’s that artists like Warhol & Rauschenberg were turning images from
‘Popular culture into art – its name “Pop Art” which was radically new, creating “Pop Art”, not
traditional subjects for art. They involved humour and taking from work that was all around the
general public.
Rauschenbergs drawings were very practical, they became more complex over the years as he
began to question the world.
Robert Rauschenberg’s Buffalo, 1964, mixed.
Roy Lichtenstein particularly liked crudely drawn magazine & news paper to use as source
material. Images that caught his eye. He uses a method of drawing each thing individually and
placing together. Sometimes focusing in on only certainly parts of the cut out comic strip, maybe
changing the original words around, giving the original image a complete new meaning and
size/presents.
Comic books in the in the 60’s comics – sergeant Rock, hell cats & G I Joe.
He would pick something funny or striking but mainly funny a part of a comic but transferred
will become a painting. Once spotted it is cut & stored future reference.
Within his process his 1st move was to make a drawing the exact same size as the panel. Then he
projects the image against the wall to see how big the painting should be. Then he redraws the
outline in the day light, this is a method he has used since the 60’s. Sometimes he will take 2
images from separate comics and put them together. He worked every day in his studio stopping
for lunch at 1 o’clock. He burst onto the sense. By blowing them up makes you examine them
more closely hence giving the Pixelated effect.
He likes the fact of taking a piece from another strip & in a painting alone can mean a completely
different context. When it was done 1st it caused some controversial reactions within the
commercial art world. Some cartoonist decided to do their version of Pop art which was shown
in a 1st class museum in N.Y.
Roy Lichtenstein’s exhibitions gave reactions such as: “our galleries are been invaded by
pinheads & contemptible style of gum chewers, bobby socks & worse delinquents”
Brian O’Doherty for the New York Times wrote:
“Its the worse Artist in the world”
In 1968 he had an exhibition in the Tate London. They purchased ‘Whaam’ for the nation.
He main ejective was to paint & to stop his paintings looking like paintings, his subject would be
cartoons and war paintings. Also with an element of humour and the distress woman coming
through in a lot of his work. He wanted to be ‘Venacular’ and speak the language or dialect
spoken by the ordinary people of a nation. Art history dominated areas of his career, in 1936 he
was parodying a variety of artwork from advertising & comics and to ‘high Art’ modern
masterpieces by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Picasso & others. All the time, Lichtenstein noted
that” the things that I have apparently parodied I actually admire”
Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles
Picasso’s Femme Dalger
Modrian influence .
His work ‘ I can see the whole Gallery, and there’s nobody in it’ was his most expensive painting
to sale to date, selling for $44.8 million Dollars, which was shown at the Pop Show, Whitney
museum, N.Y.
I can see the whole Gallery, and there’s nobody in it
Andy Warhol was another major influence and associated with Pop Art as he was the most
successful and highly paid commercial illustrator in New York even before he began to make art
destined for galleries. Nevertheless, his screen printed images of Marilyn Monroe, soup cans, and
sensational newspaper stories, quickly became synonymous with Pop Art. He emerged from the
poverty and obscurity of an Eastern European immigrant family in Pittsburgh, to become a
charismatic magnet for bohemian New York, and to ultimately find a place in the circles of High
Society. For many his ascent echoes one of Pop art's ambitions, to bring popular styles and
subjects into the exclusive salons of high art. His elevation to the status of a popular icon
represented a new kind of fame and celebrity for a fine artist.
His influences were more on famous people and used the method of screen printing. He was
recognised for painting the Campbell’s soup can, which was something he said he consumed for
20 years every day. Also marlin Monroe was iconic to the world and to his imagery and is closely
connected to his work. He made it his own and will always be associated with Andy Warhol....he
branded the brand.
Andy Warhol’s Marylyn Monroe
His Famous soup can.
It was all about mass production, and he was reflecting this in his work by screen printing...each image was the
same but slightly different so he could sell as an original...but mass produced and made him famous & rich.
By looking closely at 3 artists from the pop art movement the main thing they had in common was an element of
fun. All their work is bright and colourful, but they are very different in ways, the only thing they have connected
in my option is there way of Advertising. Roy Lichtenstein & Andy Warhol both created artwork from already used
sources; Roy used comic strips and recreated his work from this. Andy Warhol done similar as in used every day
items and the face of famous people. Keith Haring used advertisements billboards to get his message across but it
was his own imagery of different political events and messages coming through...so all unique in there owe way,
but either way they were part of a movement that we see every day & will for a long time adding a bit of fun,
Drama and colour to the world.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IxcJsXyWtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsY4ihZCJL8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaam!
http://bartbeaty.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/22/roy-lichtenstein-using-comicsto-fuse-high-and-low-art/
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-pop-art.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art
http://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2014/11/18/old-new-york-photographs43/
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-warhol-andy.htm
https://www.thinglink.com/scene/522501012372586496
http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2014/sep/26/hockney-trailer-artistdavid-hockney-video