Archive for category Pop Art
Pop Art Paintings – Art Pulled From Popular Culture
The visual art movement known as Pop Art began in Britain during the middle of the 1950s. It later moved into the United States culture by the end of this same decade. Pop Art paintings are usually of characters that are popular in advertising, comic books, and anyone else who plays a large part in mass culture. Irony tends to be used extensively in Pop Art design. Even the most mundane objects can be painted or drawn in such a way that they are truly a work of art.
Sometimes the most intriguing paintings are of images that are common in everyday advertising. A prime example of this would be the painting of cans of soup that Andy Warhol made. Each of the 32 cans in the painting depicted the type of soup offered by a certain company at the time the painting was created. Andy Warhol played a large part in boosting the movement. His painting titled Eight Elvises, which is also considered Pop Art, brought 100 million dollars.
Paintings done in the Pop style varied between Britain and the United States, even though this movement was referred to as the Pop Art movement in both locations. In Britain, the paintings reflected what was popular in America and also added onto some aspects seen in Abstract Expressionism. Read the rest of this entry »
A Brief History of Pop Art
Pop art started in the USA during the earlier period of the 1960′s. But it was already making its presence felt in the late fifties. Pop art was basically an art movement which aimed to replace the abstract mode of artistic expression with messages that are easier to understand. The pioneers of this art movement were Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. The boom of this art movement or phenomenon mainly happened in New York City. The initiators of Pop art believed that the metaphysical complexities of abstract art are already out of tune as times and people had become different. As its followers believed in the power of easy to recognize images of common items, pop art introduced new objects such as flags, maps and targets or stuffed animals and rubber tires on paintings. Irony, sarcasm, and mockery were the favorite aspects of this art movement. Pop art in many ways was a form of rebellion to the dictates of traditional expressionism. According to pop art, confining ourselves to the old rules of the arts can make us stagnant as they fit only with the old era.
Some of the known advocates of this new artistic movement were Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. They shocked the painting world with their works that courageously introduced pop culture symbols such as comic strips, advertisements, and media images. Pop art was not just a far cry from the traditional rules on visual expression. It was in itself a slap in the face to the dictates of abstract painting style. Because the public could easily relate to its features, pop art gained the appreciation and support of many art critic groups. But in spite of that traditional abstract expressionism continued to flourish as it is the respected root of classic art. As they say, nothing beats the original. As pop art maintained its mockery activities, it did not reduce the popularity of abstract expressionism. Read the rest of this entry »