Pop Art emerged during the 1950s and 1960s in Britain and America. It was inspired by the commercial and popular culture of the western world. The movement started as a rebellion against the traditional forms of art. Instead of focusing on traditional art forms, pop artists sought to create a more modern and famous state the art. At its peak, the movement was regarded as anti-art for not following contemporary standards.
Characteristics of Pop Art
Understanding the various characteristics of Pop Art can help scholars identify the key ideas that inspired the movement. Richard Hamilton gave a detailed description of the movement in a letter to his friends. In his letter, Richard Hamilton explained the various characteristics of Pop Art. He categorized it into seven main categories: popular, transient, cheap, mass-produced, young, svelte, sexy, and glamorous.
How To Find Pop Art
Pop Art is often associated with the use of popular consumer symbols. Examples of this include the humble tin of beans or the iconic Marilyn Monroe image in “Marilyn Monroe, I.” James Rosenquist, another proponent of the movement, also claimed that Pop Art was influenced by the commercial culture of the western world.
According to Andy Warhol, Pop Art was influenced by modern consumer culture. He said that artists often created images that people could easily recognize—examples of these included picnic tables, men’s pants, and refrigerators. In Pop Art, the concept of commercial or branded symbolism is also an important theme. This idea suggests that art can be influenced by everything.
Pop Art often features bold colors like red, blue, and yellow. Although these colors don’t represent an artist’s inner self, they often reflect the popular culture around them. This is because the artist didn’t use these colors to represent their inner world. The hard-edged compositions are often used to defuse the looseness of specific styles, such as Abstraction and Impressionism. Many Pop Art pieces are made up of fragmented or distinctive shapes. Some artists would also sometimes add humor to their works by enlarging objects to almost grotesque proportions.
Pop Art Techniques
Dadaism often inspires Pop Art. Instead of using traditional methods, artists sometimes created strange and unsettling combinations of images and objects from popular culture. These works are often displayed in collages. Appropriation is borrowing or altering the works of mass popular culture.
Due to the rise of consumer culture and the increasing number of visual phenomena, appropriation has become an essential part of the art world. Pop Art also heavily utilized the design industry’s processes, such as commercial printing and billboard designs. These methods were often compared and inspired by the marketing propaganda commonly featured in the world around them.
Famous Pop Artists
Who are the most famous Pop Artists? Some of these include Roy Lichtenstein, David Boh, and Andy Warhol. Richard Hamilton and David Hockney are also regarded as the original Pop Artists.
British Pop Art founder Richard Hamilton was often regarded as the movement’s founding father. He believed that art should not only be exhibited in galleries and museums but also be a way of life. He helped make the movement mainstream.
Pop Art was also widely spread through the media and the film industry. This is because Andy Warhol was able to capitalize on his celebrity status to spread the movement.