6 Things You Should Know About Pop Art

Pop Art is an art movement that reached its peak in the 1960s. While it began in Britain, American Pop artists are generally better known and primarily associated with the movement. Even though every artist had their own authentic approach, they were all inspired by consumerism, popular culture, and celebrities. The influence of mass media is also reflected in the fact that Pop artists widely employed appropriation in their work. Here are 6 things about Pop you should know.

Pop Art was born in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. It reached its climax in the 1960s in the United States, and it ended in the late 1970s when minimalism took over the art world. The movement was highly influenced by Neo-Dada. The artists of both movements questioned the nature of art by introducing everyday objects in their artworks.

When it comes to British Pop Art, it’s important to mention the Independent Group. This group was formed in 1952 and its members were famous Pop artists such as Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton, as well as the renowned art critic Lawrence Alloway. The Independent Group discussed the role of mass culture in fine art, thus formulating the basic ideas of British Pop Art. British Pop artists had an ambivalent stance when it came to consumerism and pop culture.

They were inspired by mass media and mass culture that had originated in the USA. Their approach was distant from the beginning since they were essentially influenced by things coming from afar. In a way, they used American consumerist culture as a coping mechanism. The UK was heavily damaged in World War II and Pop artists drew inspiration from the unattainable American dream in order to escape their own realities. Nevertheless, they were not completely blinded by its glossiness and attractiveness.

British Pop Art was often critical of popular culture and it addressed contemporary consumerist lifestyles in an ironic and disapproving manner. Finally, Pop Art wasn’t accepted only by American artists, it also found its way to continental Europe. In Germany, it was embraced under the name of Capitalist Realism, while in France it shared many things in common with a movement called Nouveau Realisme.

When it comes to the origin of the term Pop Art, there are several theories. The first and the most widely accepted one is that the before-mentioned British art critic and curator, Lawrence Alloway came up with it. Alloway was aware of contemporary artists’ interest in consumerism, mass-produced objects, celebrity culture, etc. Therefore, he gave his in-depth analysis of this rising phenomenon in an article titled The Arts and the Mass Media, which was published in a 1958 issue of Architectural Design & Construction. Moreover, this is the very article often labeled as the first one where the term Pop Art was used. The problem is that even though Lawrence Alloway addressed the issue by naming it mass popular art, he never actually used the term Pop Art.

The first published use of the term appears in the 1956 article But Today We Collect Ads written by Alison and Peter Smithson who were British architects. They were both a married couple and colleagues who formed an architectural partnership in order to question the modernist approach to urbanism. Their work played a considerable role in the development and evolution of the style known as the New Brutalism. The duo was also part of the Independent Group where they examined the dynamics between advertising and fine art, evaluating their respective importance and roles in society as well as in art.

The previously mentioned British artist Richard Hamilton also used the term in his letter to the Smithsons’ where he listed the main characteristics of Pop Art in the following order: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business. Finally, the first visual use of the term is attributed to Eduardo Paolozzi’s 1947 collage I Was a Rich Man’s Plaything, which incorporated the word Pop.

Even though Pop Art started out in Britain with artists such as Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Peter Blake, American Pop artists are better known and most commonly associated with the movement. Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Roy Lichtenstein became some of the leading figures of Pop. Warhol is probably the most famous pop artist with recognizable works showing multiplied Campbell’s soup cans and reproduced ad infinitum portraits of Marilyn Monroe. He worked as a successful commercial illustrator before pursuing an artistic career, so he was able to employ his knowledge from advertising when creating his artworks. Warhol explored celebrity culture, the commodification of various public figures, and the commodification of art itself. Warhol is also known for his New York studio which was called The Factory. It became a prominent meeting point for artists, intellectuals, and celebrities.

James Rosenquist was also an artist who initially had a career in advertising. His experience of working as a billboard painter had an immense impact on his work. He produced monumental paintings that referred to consumer culture and advertisements. Rosenquist’s distinctive characteristic was the surrealistic aspect of his artwork. Large-scale fragments of public figures and mass-produced objects combined as a whole provoked a sense of alienation and derealization. These augmented depictions contributed to the surrealist and hazy quality of Rosenquist’s art.

Roy Lichtenstein is another renowned Pop artist who is best known for drawing inspiration from comic books. He wasn’t influenced just by comic book themes, but he also used the Ben-Day dots in creating his work. Lichtenstein adopted an ambivalent stance toward comic books. While he was inspired by them, he was also critical of the trivialization of emotion and romantic relationships that were present in comics. Therefore, his art always has a subtle note of parody, irony, and criticism.

A common trait of all Pop artists was their preoccupation with the everyday and the ephemeral. Artists were interested in exploring mass-produced objects, mass media imagery, and advertisements. All of these had become the new pillars of a consumer-driven society. By incorporating everyday items and consumer goods in their work, artists questioned the very nature of art. It became less elitist and more oriented towards the masses. Therefore, artists were inspired by movies, magazines, comic books, commercials, billboards, and shop windows.

Pop artists didn’t only analyze consumer mentality in regard to its effect on blurring the line between high and low art, but they also investigated how rapidly developing consumerism contributed to the commodification of people. Therefore, celebrities and their depersonalization also represented a significant inspiration for Pop artists. Public figures such as J.F.K., Marilyn Monroe, and Jackie Kennedy were degraded almost to the level of an object, just waiting to be consumed.

Politics were also highly explored in Pop. The 1960s turbulent nature was reflected in the art of Pop artists. For example, James Rosenquist was motivated by the ongoing Vietnam War to produce the F-111, a work named after a U.S. fighter bomber. By combining consumer wealth with the imagery of a warplane, Rosenquist demonstrated his sensitivity and awareness of contemporary political issues.

Ultimately, it is important to note that Pop artists’ approach to the above-mentioned themes was very much ambiguous. Some critics believe that Pop Art took an affirmative stance towards consumerism and popular culture, while others interpreted their work as critical and disapproving. Pop Art cannot be evaluated in such black-and-white terms. Pop artists were fascinated by mass media and consumer culture, so they often created works that were of an approving and praiseful nature. Nevertheless, many artworks show a condemning note, which provokes the viewer to rethink the values of the postwar society.

While Pop artists continued to work in a traditional manner by creating acrylic paintings, they also explored various mediums. A considerable amount of inspiration stemmed from commercial culture, hence they often employed visual language of advertisements, billboards, and comic books in their art. Collage, mixed media, printmaking, silkscreens, and the Ben-Day dots method are the predominant techniques used in Pop Art.

One of the first techniques that Pop artists used is collage, a process of combining different materials such as fragments from ads, magazines, and newspapers into a whole artwork. The leading collage artist of Pop is Richard Hamilton. He is also known for adopting mixed media techniques in his art, another medium that was widely utilized by Pop artists in general. Hamilton’s Pin-up provides a good example since he used oil, cellulose, and collage on a panel when creating a female nude whose breasts he sculpted in plastic.

Nevertheless, the most commonly used techniques by Pop artists were printmaking and silkscreen painting, both of which were very popular in the commercial culture of the 1960s. Warhol used the silkscreen technique to produce his prints of Elvis, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe. In this process, Warhol would lay a photograph onto the mash of a silkscreen, which he would later cover in ink. The ink would pass through the mesh and impress a print of the image onto the canvas underneath. On the other hand, Lichtenstein preferred to use printmaking techniques like lithography, while other Pop artists employed etching or woodcut techniques.

Finally, Lichtenstein became famous for appropriating Ben-Day dots in his artwork. The Ben-Day dots process is characterized by the use of small colored dots, which were mainly present in comic books. Lichtenstein used stencils to create the dot patterns since he liked the commercial and mechanical feel that they lent to his artwork.

The most important innovation of Pop Art was its aim to reconnect art with everyday life. Pop artists regarded the conventional notion of art as elitist, given its reliance on a highbrow educational background for audience comprehension. Pop Art was seen as approachable to the broader masses. Therefore, by adopting the concept of appropriation, Pop artists blurred the line between high and low art.

Appropriation represents intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images and objects. Therefore, by incorporating elements and symbols that were visually familiar to people (e.g. Coca-Cola, Marilyn Monroe, specific brands of cigarettes), Pop artists made their art accessible to the general public. They deconstructed the notion of high art. By drawing inspiration from familiar things from popular culture, these artists redefined established parameters of what can be art and what it means to be an artist.

Finally, Pop artists’ comprehensive exploration of consumer culture and the elevation of everyday things to high art questioned the status of the artwork itself. Since the capitalist mindset and consumerism infiltrated every pore of society, art was degraded to the level of a commodity. By incorporating mass-produced images into their art, Pop works turned into desirable commodities of the art market that were sought after by collectors and galleries. Art became a product that was to be bought, sold, and consumed like any other object. Ultimately, the commodification of art within Pop Art reflected and reinforced the consumerist values of the time.