What is pop art

An abbreviation of Popular Art, Pop art is characterized by a deconstruction of images seen in popular culture — television, comic books, magazines, movies and other various forms of advertising. These elements were represented objectively and borrowed the commercial techniques used by the media from which the subjects were borrowed.

What is Pop art from a sociological stand point? Pop Artists embraced the fact that their images could be mass produced, easily accessible, expendable and transient. Benjamin stated that a copy was of higher social significance than an original because it could be possessed and enjoyed by the buyer at any moment.

This idea had a profound effect on postmodern thought and highly influenced the Pop art movement. Pop art is a critique of the materialism and consumerism present in modern societies.

The idea behind the piece of art became more important than the work itself. In Brazil, Pop art has become an instrument for denouncing the political regime's social abuse and totalitarian aspects of their policies during the military dictatorship in the s.

However Grecco's technique teeters between Street and Pop art with a fresh voice that resembles that of Banksy. The Pop art movement has produced many other major artists in addition to Andy Warhol, whose Marylin Diptych is known throughout the world. Often times the best way of defining a major art movement like Pop art is best done by looking at examples of key pieces and figures that contributed to them. He is known for creating enormous, stylized reproductions of comic strips using dots to mimic the flat tones of used in commercial printing.

This innovative artist is a key figure of Pop art alongside Andy Warhol. Crying Girl is one of his best known works. He created collages combining images from pop culture and fine art. He is best known for co-creating the album cover for the Beatles' album Sgt. He also worked with artists such as John Cage and Allan Kaprow at Rutgers University in the s and 60s; Kaprow's famous "happenings" performances first took place on Segal's farm in New Jersey.

Ed Ruscha. Ed Ruscha is recognized as one of the leading figures of Pop art and Conceptualism on the West Coast. From his iconic images of gasoline stations to his 'word paintings,' his work is deeply influenced by the graphic arts and deals largely with themes of commercial culture, language, and the mundane.

Robert Rauschenberg. Robert Rauschenberg, a key figure in early Pop art, admired the textural quality of Abstract Expressionism but scorned its emotional pathos. His famous "Combines" are part sculpture, part painting, and part installation. Jasper Johns.

Jasper Johns is an American artist who rose to prominence in the late s for his multi-media constructions, dubbed by critics as Neo-Dada. Johns' work, including his world-famous targets and American flags series, were important predecessors to Pop art. Peter Blake. Peter Blake is a British Pop artist that has made many iconic images including the cover for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Rosalyn Drexler. Rosalyn Drexler powerfully repurposed media images and is now becoming recognized as a key feminist voice in the Pop Art movement.

British Pop Art. The Pop art movement emerged in Britain before becoming enourmously popular in the United States. Early practitioners such as Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton set the scene for the achievement of legends such as Warhol and Lichtenstein. Photorealism is a style of painting that was developed by such artists as Chuck Close, Audrey Flack and Richard Estes. Photorealists often utilize painting techniques to mimic the effects of photography and thus blur the line that have typically divided the two mediums.

Capitalist Realism. The Capital Realists shared a critical stance toward the invasion of American consumerism into West Germany.

American Art. Enjoy our guide through the many American movements. Important Art and Artists of Pop Art. Artwork Images. President Elect Artist: James Rosenquist Like many Pop artists, Rosenquist was fascinated by the popularization of political and cultural figures in mass media.

British historian Alistair Sooke tracks down the forgotten women artists of pop, finding their art and their stories ripe for rediscovery.

The definitive, carefully composed, 3 hour documentary on Warhol - and his part in Pop Art. Proposes that Warhol's subjects are not about popular culture, they are chosen for their very particular, art specific themes. Professor and historian Annie Cohen-Solal overviews the life and brilliance of Leo Castelli, the gallerist that brought many Pop artists to fame from Rauschenberg to Rosenquist.

The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet.

Pop Our Pick. The Art and Life of Roy Lichtenstein. Our Pick. Reconfiguring Pop Our Pick. Just Ask Them. Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, Pop artists felt that the art exhibited in museums or taught at schools did not represent the real world, and so looked to contemporary mass culture for inspiration instead.

Discover who put the 'Pop' in Pop Art and why the style became one of the most recognisable forms of Modern Art today. Looking to buy Pop Art instead? Take a look at our collection or explore pop art paintings. He broke down the meaning of Pop Art into simple terms: Popular designed for a mass audience , Transient short-term solution , Expendable easily forgotten , Low-cost, Mass-produced, Young aimed at youth , Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business. Screaming for Chanel by Olga Lomaka.

Indeed, branded or commercial symbolism is an especially important theme in Pop Art. Incorporating logos or impersonal imagery reinforced the idea that art could be inspired by anything and everything, not just history, mythology or morality. Pop Art is often characterised by bold colours, particularly the primary colours: red, blue and yellow.

The colours were usually bright and similar to your typical comic strip palette. Many Pop Art pieces are consequently made up of distinctive or fragmented shapes. Some artists would also satirise objects by enlarging them to almost comical proportions.

These objects or images are often displayed in collages, arranged in an artistic process called Appropriation.