pop art movement characteristics history and important facts
Pop Art Movement: Characteristics, History, and Important Facts
Bold, colorful, witty, young, glamorous, transient! Pop art is all that and so much more. This Buzzle article takes you on an artistic journey of one of the most popular art movements ever - the Pop Art Movement.
Not that cheap!
Andy Warhol's Eight Elvisses was sold for USD 100 million in 2009, making it the fifth-highest priced work of art ever sold. Another of his works, Green Car Crash, was sold for USD 71.7 million in 2007.
False Start by Jasper Johns became the ninth most-expensive work of art in history when it was sold for USD 80 million.Characteristics of the Movement
★ Pop art was visually attractive, as use of bright and bold colors like red, yellow, blue was prominent. Techniques like color blocking, use of black outlines and Ben-day dots―a printing technique in which dots are used to render effects―was a significant aspect of the pop art movement.
★ Silkscreen painting, use of acrylic colors, also became very popular. Paintwork became much sharper and lines clearer.
★ Recurring themes in pop art were food, household items, and many other mundane objects. Unimaginable objects like toilets were also a part of pop art. For example, Claes Oldenburg's Soft Toilet.
★ Logos, brand names, and product names were used. Campbell's Soup Cans labels by Andy Warhol, for example.
Limited edition Campbell's soup can with Andy Warhol's autograph.
What Prompted the Movement
★ The main idea behind this movement was to establish the fact that art is not elitist, it can be about common people or day-to-day things.
★ It was a strong reaction to the abstract expressionism, prevalent after World War II. Pop art was a successful attempt to pull back society from abstraction.
★ The pop art movement was, to an extent, inspired by the Dada movement, but was at the same time dissimilar to it. Dadaism was all about anti-art works, whereas pop art was all about art for the masses.Evolution of Pop Art
★ One of the most popular art movements, the pop art movement began in Britain in the early 1950s, and spread to America by the late '50s.
In Britain
★ A group of painters, sculptors, writers, and critics called Independent Group, was a harbinger to the pop art movement in Britain.
★ Eduardo Paolozzi, a co-founder of the group, created a series of collages called Bunk! These were influenced by magazines, comics, and other graphic works that represented contemporary society.
★ In fact, one his work Rich Man's Plaything, was the first work of art to have the word pop on it. It was written on smoke coming out of a revolver.
★ The British pop art movement used strong symbolism from the American society and its growing prosperity.
In America
★ Artists started using irony and parody, along with inspiration from real-life to withdraw from abstract expressionism.
★ By 1960, pop art had officially become famous, and artists like Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine held their first exhibitions.
★ Andy Warhol, the most popular pop artist of all time, had his first solo exhibition in 1962.
★ Pop art in America was much more bold and aggressive than its British counterpart.Leading Pop Artists
American
★ Robert Rauschenberg
★ Jasper Johns
★ Roy Lichtenstein
★ Andy Warhol
★ Jim Dine
★ Robert Indiana
★ Ray Johnson
★ Alex Katz
★ Claes OldenburgBritish
★ Sir Peter Blake
★ Patrick Caulfield
★ Richard Hamilton
★ David Hockney
★ Allen JonesMost Popular Works
Roy Lichtenstein's 'I Can See the Whole Room... and There's Nobody in It'
Claes Oldenburg's 'Study for a Rotten Apple Core, Two'
Famous Works of Andy Warhol
Significance
★ What makes the pop art movement so significant, is that it brought art to the common man. It acted like a bridge between commercial arts and fine arts.
★ Pop art reflected contemporary society; therefore, viewers could connect with the art. It made a strong visual impact on the audience.
★ Although it was scorned by critics, and called a big joke without any humor; it was appealing to the general public.
★ Artists started experimenting with different mediums, which brought a novelty to art. Acrylic painting, collage on canvas, silkscreen printing, use of highly contrasting colors made art more attractive.
★ Pop art movement, pop artists, and their works, have influenced generations of artists. And even today, we can see many references of pop art in graphics.