Pop+Culture

= = The term Pop Art can be defined as an art movement in the 1950’s-1970’s that incorporated popular culture and the mass media into art forms (Adams 516). These art forms depicted objects or scenes found in everyday life and employed techniques found within the commercial world, basically making everyday objects monumental. Interpreted as a reaction to the non-figurative [|abstract expression] art movement dominating at the time, Pop Art brought art to the level of objectivity (Adams 518). The selected objects or images used by Pop Art artists were often brought to the level of artistic imagery, either through change of medium, colours, quantity, size or texture (Adams 518). = = toc

Definition
The actual term “pop” was said to have been coined by an art critic after having viewed a poster by [|Richard Hamilton] entitled “Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, and appealing” in 1956 (Hirsh 361). Which used the technique of [|collage] to incorporate numerous iconographic images from popular culture into one image (Hirsh 361). Being one of the first artists on the pop art scene, Hamilton also set out a guide for following artists which included a checklist of pop art subject matter (Hirsh 362).



Pop Art Checklist
Hamilton’s checklist stated that pop art subject matter should be 1. Popular: Designed for the mass audience 2. Transient: Short term solution 3. Expendable: easily forgotten 4. Low cost 5. Mass produced 6. Young: Aimed at youth 7. Witty 8. Sexy 9. Gimmicky 10. Glamorous 11. Big Business (List taken from Adams, 516)

Although Pop Art made its first impact in London in 1956, it reached its fullest development in New York City (Adams 516). Two [|New York] artist in particular that used Hamilton's check list as well as bridged the gap between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art were Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (Adams, 516).

Jasper John
One major theme in many of John’s works was to blur the boundary between the mundain and art (Adams 518). One particular work which can be used to explain this is his 1958 piece “Three Flags”, which takes the popular, national emblem of the United States and superimposes 2 smaller versions of the flag on top of each other. The image of the flag is painted onto canvas and wax stripes are used to create a sense of surface texture. Through this work John addresses the idea of using abstract shapes to create a work of art that already has a very strong iconic meaning (Adams 518). Overall the piece raises the question as to when the flag ceases to be a patriotic symbol and becomes just a series of shapes?



Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was also an influential pioneer in the “Pop Art” scene (Adams 519). Through the use of mix mediums such as [|silkscreen], sculpture, painting and photography, Rauschenberg set out to express the idea of the “unfocused” in his work (Adams 519). Through the presentation of popular, iconically loaded images, simultaneously the viewer is bombarded with multiple interpretations, thus leading them to not focus on the individual scenes but study the image as a whole. Rauschenberg silkscreen and oil print from 1964 entitled “Retroactive I” is one of the artist's most popular work as well as one of the key pieces which clearly exemplifies this idea of the unfocused (Adams 519).

Quote "I think a painting is more like the real world if it's made out of the real world."



Other Influential “Pop Art” artists
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 * [|Andy Warhol]
 * An American born artist, which a background in commercial art. Warhol was one of the founders of the Pop Art Movement when it started in the United States. Most of his work focused around the concepts of Americana and American pop culture, making most of his art representative of american cultural values and everyday american objects (Adams, 517).
 * [[image:war3_small.jpg width="60" height="90"]]
 * [|Tom Wesselmann]
 * Mostly known for his "Great American Nude" series in which he would combine images of popular pin-ups at the time and use mix mediums to place them in the traditional reclining nude position. Wesselmann's images were often considered to be very vulgar in that emphasis was always placed on the womans nipples, open mouth and nudity (Adams, 517).
 * [|Roy Lichtenstein]
 * Artist Roy Lichtensteins work focused on monumentalizing flat comic book drawings. The images created were always bright, up-close and addressed personal and social issues (Adams, 516).
 * [[image:roy_lichtenstein_painting.jpg width="81" height="84"]]
 * [|Wayne Thiebaud]
 * A West Coast artist who's work focued on mondain everyday objects such as books and food. His series entitled "Thirten Books" challenged concepts of lighting and angles while using bright colours and thick textures (Adams, 517).
 * [|Claes Oldenburg]
 * Produced and enormous range of work from clothing to sculptural pieces. Famous for taking everyday objects and blowing them up thousands of times larger then their actual size. Most famous work is "Clothespin" which is a sculptural piece of a clothespin which has been blown up to 45 ft and placed in Central Square in Philadelphia (Adams, 516).
 * [[image:oldenburg_clothespin.jpg width="78" height="97"]]
 * [|George Segal]
 * Creates environments in which he sets plaster figures, singly or in groups and positions them to seem isolated and self absorbed in their actions. His work often encompasses others work, most commonly the painting of Mondrain (Adams, 518).
 * [[image:mondrian.ap.jpg width="68" height="107"]]
 * [|Marisol Escobar]
 * Female artist which combines cubist inspiration blocks of wood with figuration. Her most famous piece is "The Last Supper" in which she turns Leonardo's Last Supper fresco into an architectural 3-D setting (Adams, 518).
 * [[image:sculpasslastsupper.jpg width="97" height="69"]]

Artistic Techniques
Overall “Pop Art” arose as a rebellion against the accepted style of the time (Hirsh 361). This rebellion brought the materials as well as realities of everyday life into the art world, allowing many ordinary objects to become extraordinary (Hirsh 361). Artistic techniques such as repetition and flattening are often used in "Pop Art" to emphasize and push the boundaries between art and product design. The use of mix mediums also works towards allowing the artist to combine numerous meanings from popular culture to construct a new meaning. In order to grasp the viewers attention the artist must focus on the here and now, thus allowing many to understand the meaning behind Pop Art and not only those who are educated on art history (Adams 516). In using images from popular culture the art is able to become communal in that it does not exclude certain classes, but invites all to participate through its use of popular common images (Adams 516).

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Work Cited
Adams, Laurie Schneider. A History of Western Art. 3rd Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001.

Hirsh, Robert. Seizing the Light. A History of Photography. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000.

All images taken from Pages 516-518 of Adams.

Related Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Expressionism http://www.artchive.com/artchive/pop_art.html http://www.the-artists.org/MovementView.cfm?id=8A01EE9B-BBCF-11D4-A93500D0B7069B40