Post on 22-Jan-2021
Pop Art c.1955 – 1970
The 1960’s – America was the capitalist superpower, rich with industrial production and world
influence. The first batch of baby boomers were entering early adulthood with new hope, new dreams and progress. For the first time in history television is a new influence and cultural power; it was cultural power with an eye for consumerism. New ways of making art with new techniques and new philosophies: that was the 1960s
Was Pop Art a celebration of or a commentary on Pop Culture?
It was both. Pop Artists were highlighting the shallow, transient and ridiculous nature of Pop Culture. At the same time, Pop art was about youth, fun and most importantly it was about the now! Cold war?! Nuclear war?!! We could all be dead tomorrow so let’s just have fun! Pop Art was fun.
Proto-‐pop: Robert Rauschenberg & Jasper Johns
“Pop”: slang for popular.
“Pop Culture”: refers to commercially available, trendy, hot things in capitalist culture: the latest fashion, the most popular movies, TV shows, trendy websites, trashy magazines, fast food, movie stars and pop music.
“Pop Art”: An art movement from the 1960s that used the images, colours and visual language of pop culture. It blurred the line between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art and revisited many of the tricks of the Dadaists. It was also a reaction to the times and a revolt against the intellectualism of Abstract Expressionism.
Above: Jasper Johns, “3 Flags” Left: R. Rauschenberg, “JFK”
The work of Rauschenberg and Johns resembled DADAISM so is sometimes called ‘Neo-‐Dada’. It also influenced later Pop Art so it’s also sometimes called Proto-‐Pop.
They understood that the world they lived in was inundated with images, symbols and consumer goods. They created a style that combined mass-‐media images, issues and found objects with action painting, screen printing and installation sculpture.
Rauschenberg and Johns’ use of everyday, commercial objects and images from Pop Culture influenced the next generation of artists... the Pop Artists!
Andy Warhol:
Roy Lichtenstein:
Claes Oldenburg: James Rosenquist:
Warhol only made works of famous people and things. He only made a self portrait when he himself was famous! Painting, film, screen printing, sculpture, magazines, performance art, video art, installation art … he did it all!
Andy Warhol was the quintessential 60’s pop artist. He was slick as an advertisement and emotionless as consumerism. His work commented upon notions of the media icon, the consumer, the product and the times he lived in. To him, and his “Factory”, Art was made as a consumer product – it was to be mass produced and easily digested!
Like Warhol, Lichtenstein played upon popular culture and its love for the icon, celebrity, mass appeal and the comic. He produced pieces of art in a mass-‐produced manner. This questioned notions of high art vs. low art and the very nature of what is art! Lichtenstein made images of violence and romance: two key components of Pop Culture!
Claes Oldenburg produced sculptures, often HUGE sculptures, of regular, everyday objects as a means of commenting the iconic nature of 60’s consumer culture. Claes Oldenburg’s work is knowingly humourous and often ironic.
Rosenquist was a professional billboard painter before going into fine art. He made monumental Art like monumental consumerism, juxtaposing various images from American Pop Culture in a seemingly random manner, rendering them ultimately meaningless.