Starter Activity – 2mins!
In your opinion what would you say is the
current most popular:
• Celebrity
• Book
• Soft drink
Pop Art
• Pop Art was the art of popular
culture. It was inspired by the
consumer boom of the 1950's
and 1960's following the war.
Music, style icons and fashion
all inspired artists work. Pop
Art was brash, young and fun
and different to traditional art.
It included different styles of
painting and sculpture from
various countries, but what
they all had in common was an
interest in mass-media, massproduction and mass-culture.
Learning Objective – To gain an
understanding of Pop Art and Pop
Artists
• GOOD PROGRESS – I know what the term Pop Art
means and have researched one Pop Artist. I have
copied a simple section of the artists work.
• EXCELLENT PROGRESS – I can explain the work of an
artist to someone else and successfully represent the
artists style in my study.
• OUTSTANDING PROGRESS – I can confidently discuss
the work of more than one artist and have effectively
used the formal elements in my study.
1. Roy Lichtenstein
2. Claes Oldenburg
3. Andy Warhol
Name:
Researching Pop Artists
Research your artist on the internet to find out the answers to the following questions.
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NAME of Artist
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DATE and place of birth/death
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CONTENT – Describe what it is an image of. Why do you think the artist created this piece?
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CONTEXT – How has the artist shown an influence of popular culture of the 1950s/60s?
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FORMAL ELEMENTS – Describe how the artist has used line, shape, space, texture and colour.
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STYLE – How would you describe this artist’s style?
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TECHNIQUE – What materials and techniques did the artist use to create the work?
1. Roy Lichtenstein - 1923-1997
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Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York as the son of a realtor and a housewife. Next to Andy
Warhol he is considered as THE great artist of the Pop Art movement. The use of familiar
subjects like comic strips, bank notes or advertising themes, makes the art of Roy
Lichtenstein easily accessible.
Lichtenstein worked a lot with stencils, thus producing rows of oversized dots that should
make his paintings or prints look like a huge mass publication product. Although he prepared
and executed his works painstakingly like the old masters, he wanted his works of art look like
machine made. One of his peculiarities was, that he did not want his brush strokes to be
seen.
Other than paintings and sculptures, the artist produced a number of prints for which he
used different techniques: lithographs, screenprints, etchings and woodcuts. Often he
combined these techniques in one print.
Lichtenstein is usually characterized as ironic, humorous and witty. He openly commented on
his own works.
2. Claes Oldenburg
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Claes Oldenburg was born in 1929 in Sweden and grew up in the United States. He became
famous for his art in the 1960s with over-scaled sculptures inspired by food and other
domestic items. One of the foremost figures of the Pop Art movement, he is also recognized
as a superb draftsman. Since 1977, he has collaborated with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, on
a number of large-scale projects. His sculptures, though quite large, can often interact with
the audience. One such interactive early sculpture was a soft sculpture of a tube of lipstick
which would deflate unless a person re-pumped air into it. Some of Oldenburgs earlier pieces
were sewn together by his wife from soft material whereas others were recreated as
stronger aluminium versions.
3. Andy Warhol - 1928-1987
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No other artist is as much identified with Pop Art as Andy Warhol. The media called him the
Prince of Pop. Warhol made his way from a Pittsburgh working class family to an American
legend.
Andy was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh as the son of Slovak immigrants. His original name was
Andrew Warhola. His father was as a construction worker and died in an accident when Andy
was 13 years old.
Andy showed an early talent in drawing and painting. After high school he studied
commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Warhol graduated in
1949 and went to New York where he worked as an illustrator for magazines like Vogue and
Harpar's Bazaar and for commercial advertising. He soon became one of New York's most
sought of and successful commercial illustrators.
Andy Warhol - The Pop Icon
In the sixties Warhol started painting daily objects of mass production like Campbell Soup
cans and Coke bottles. Soon he became a famous figure in the New York art scene. From
1962 on he started making silkscreen prints of famous personalities like Marilyn Monroe or
Elizabeth Taylor.
The aim of Andy Warhol art was to remove the difference between fine arts and the
commercial arts used for magazine illustrations, comic books, record albums or advertising
campaigns. He once said:
"When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums".