POP Art
• Artists are interested in the images of mass media,
advertising, comics and consumer products.
• The 1950s were a period of optimism following the end
of war-time rationing, and a consumer boom took place.
• It was influenced by American artists such as Jasper
Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and British artists
such as Richard Hamilton.
• These artists wanted a more popular, less academic art.
• Pop Art therefore coincided with the youth and pop
music phenomenon of the 1950s and '60s, and became
very much a part of the image of a fashionable,
'swinging' crowd.
POP Art
• After the popularity of abstract
Expressionism this is a return to pictorial
(recognizable) subjects.
• The paintings are slick; the mark of the
maker (brushstrokes, etc.) are absent.
• The images are presented in a cool
detached manner.
Richard Hamilton
Just What Is It That makes today's Homes So
Different, So Appealing? 1956
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Richard Hamilton wrote
down a prescription for Pop
in 1957; he declared that
Pop should be:
Popular
Transient (short term
solution)
Expendable (easily
forgotten)
Low-cost
Mass-produced
Young (aimed at youth)
Witty
Sexy
Gimmicky
Glamorous
Big Business ...
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Part of pioneering
exhibition "This is
Tomorrow" by a group of
Brits.
Word Pop makes first
appearance
Chief images of later pop
are compressed into the
collage.
Young Romance comic,&
image borrowed from Art
History (Lichtenstein)
Package of ham
(Oldenburg)
Celebs. like Al Jolson
(Warhol)
Andy
Warhol
Andy Warhol
• Worked as illustrator for shoes.
• As designer he understands how ads. create & satisfy
consumer needs.
• Son of Czech immigrants in depression
• Yearned for American dream of fame & fortune
• Reflected in choice of subject matter (Glamour mags.,
Celebs. Commodities)
• Influenced by J.J & R.R. & appropriation of mass
produced images.
• Zeros in on mass production & boring repetition.
"I think everybody should be a machine."
Marilyn
1962
• Photo silkscreen on
canvas.
• Combines theme of
Celebrity & Death.
• Marilyn image loaded
with sexuality.
• She is an Object of
desire, strengthened
through repetition.
• Completed shortly after
her death
• The doomed Beauty died
at 36 of an overdose.
Saturday
Disaster
1964
"When you see a gruesome scene over and
over again it doesn't have an effect."
Tragedy is depersonalized through repetition.
• Picks up on subject of the
public’s morbid fascination
with disaster & death.
• The media's obsession with
this topic satisfies a need.
They exploit it.
• Warhol too exploits, but also
gives cause for reflection by
removing it from its context, &
making it art.
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
• Focus is print, specifically the comic books
of the 40's & 50's
• Uses limited, flat colour, and hard edged
drawing.
• Fond of subtle parody & irony
• He reproduces the Ben Day printing dots
used in the commercial printing of comics
• He uses themes of violent action &
sentimental romance.
Lichtenstein, Masterpiece, 1962
• Meant to be humorous and self referential
• Parodies the romantic notion of an artist life
• Increased size of B.D. dots & outlines creates new formal concerns
requiring transformations, and manipulations that separate this from
the low art sources..
• Amplifies the intrinsic artificiality
• Single frame unresolved
Coarse
The Benday
combines two
coloured dots
The process
illustrator and
Medium
Fine
Dot printing process
(or more) different small,
to create a third colour.
was named after US
printer Benjamin Day.
Whaam!
1963
• From comic American Armed Forces at War
• Uses clichés of comic: speech bubbles,
emphatic lettering, stylized explosions, & bright
colour.
• He combines the Renaissance tradition of a diptych, with a comic.
• The 13' X 5' size amplifies the American obsession with violence’
war & killing.
• IIt is painted during the Vietnam & Cold war.
• He depicts a moment of crisis & tension with no indication of
resolution.
Claus Oldenburg
Ice Bag
1966
• The medium is vinyl that has been sewn together.
• This is a material that is more commonly used in the
manufacturing of commercial products, than it is in art
objects.
• By greatly increasing the scale of the object, he changes
the way we look at it; it somehow gains greater importance
than it deserves.
• The soft sculpture inflates and deflates, making real
movement a part of the experience of looking at it.
• The lifelike breathing effect is amusing, but disturbing at
the same time.