POP ARTMalak Beydoun Avnoor Kooner

Patience Regular4th Hour

What is Pop Art?• Pop Art is a type of art that is based

on popular culture and the mass media

Reflects current values of society/culture

Uses images borrowed from advertising, photography, comic strips, and other mass media sources

• Pop Art is influenced from two dimensional images

• Pop artists also incorporated/reproduced 3-dimensional objects

Where Did Pop Art Come From?

• Pop Art first emerged in Great Britain during the mid 1950s and later in America during the late 1950s

• The Pop Art movement was a reaction against the seriousness of Abstract Expressionism

• The term “pop art” was first used during discussions among artists who called themselves the Independent Group

• The Independent Group was part of the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, which began in 1952

Where Did Pop Art Come From Continued

• The movement was officially named by Lawrence Alloway in his article “The Arts and Mass Media”

• Pop Art appreciates/supports popular culture, which is often also known as “material culture”

• Pop Art does not critique but rather recognized the existence of materialism and consumerism

History of Pop Art

• The art movement first began during the 1950s

• The 1950s were a period of…

Optimism Consumer boom Products were beginning to

be mass marketed and advertised

Influences• The Pop Art movement initially arose

from a rebellion against Abstract Expressionism

• Many Pop artists saw Abstract Expressionism as pretentious and over-intense

• Pop Art drew upon Neo-Dadaist elements

The Neo-Dadaist often mocked artistic and social conventions

Emphasized the illogical and absurd Favored montage, collage, and the

readymade

Characteristics• Much of the imagery used during the Pop Art

movement came from the mass media and popular culture

• Pop artists gave common, everyday objects and individuals value

• Pop artists blurred the line between fine art and commercial art

• One of the most influential characteristics of Pop Art was that the art could “borrow” from any source

• Pop artists often believed that everything was interconnected and tried to make the connections literal in their artwork

Characteristics Continued

• Key characteristics of the Pop Art movement include…

Recognizable imagery drawn from popular media and products

Bright/bold colorsClear linesFlat imagery influenced by

comic books/newspaper photographs

Images of celebrities or fictional characters

British Pop Art vs.

American Pop Art• American Pop Art was known to

be more anonymous and aggressive while English Pop Art was more subjective

• English Pop artists used to work with popular culture and technology mostly as themes or metaphors while American Pop artists were more interested with the ideas behind the movement

Andy Warhol• Born August 6,

1928

• One of the most influential artists of his time

• Famous for Avant-Guard Pop Art paintings and screen paintings

Marilyn Monroe—

1967

Campbell’s Soup Can—

1964

32 Campbell’s Soup Cans—1964

Peel Slowly and See—

1967

Famous Quotes

• “In the future everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”

• “Art is anything you can get away with.”

• “I don’t know where the artificial stops and the real starts.”

Roy Lichtenstein

• Born October 27, 1923

• First pop paintings used cartoon images and techniques derived from the appearance of commercial painting

The Drowning

Girl—1963

Ohhh…Alright…1964

Whaam!—1963

Famous Quotes

• “I like to pretend that my art has nothing to do with me.”

• “Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn’t look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.”

Jasper Johns

• Born May 15, 1930

• Early works were composed using simple schemes of flags, maps, letters, targets, and numbers

• Wanted to create meaning through the use of symbols

Flag—1954

Target with Four Faces—

1955

False Start 1959

Famous Quotes

• “Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.”

• “I don’t want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.”

Robert Rauschenberg• Born October 22, 1925

• His early works anticipated the Pop Art movement

• Rauschenberg is well known for his “Combines” of the 1950’s

• His “combines” were made of non-traditional materials and objects that were put together in new/different combinations

Monogram1959

Signs—1970

Red—1954

Famous Quotes

• “The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.”

• “I always have a good reason for taking something out but I never have one for putting something in. And I don't want to, because that means that the picture is being painted predigested.”

Summary• Characterized by clear lines,

bold/bright colors, and recognizable imagery from popular culture

• Influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Neo-Dadaism

• Easy to understand, recognize, and interpret

• Major Artists: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg

IT’S TIME FOR A

QUIZ

Roy Lichtenstein

Jasper Johns

Robert Rauschenberg

Andy Warhol

Pop Art Still Popular Today!

THE END