Pop Art an introduction

Pop Art started back in the 1950's in London, and went over to the United States in the 1960's. The reason the movement was called Pop Art is because the subjects the artists painted were popular in the current era. There were many notable Artists in the movement, there was Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and many others.

Influences and interrelationships

Pop art was influenced mainly by the media from advertising,consumerism ,comics and celebrities.

David Bowie was inspired by Andy Warhol and wrote and produced and song about Andy.

Characteristics of the artists.

David Hockney

Jasper Johns

Characteristics of Jasper Johns work:

• Irony
• Simple and familiar
• Science and Art
• Selective looking
• Paradox
• Manipulation
  
  

Roy Lichtenstein

Characteristics of Roy Lichtenstein's work:

• Print Based


• Print and dots


• 1960's irony
  

Claes Oldenburg

Characteristics of Claes Oldenburg's work:

• 1960's


• Size and scale


• Balloons


• Parades


• Appetite


• Ordinary items


• Making ordinary items and changing there functions


• Symmetry

Robert Rauschenberg

Characteristics of Robert Rauschenberg's work:

• Collages


• 1930's


• Monograms


• Neo-Dadadist


• Common Objects


• He would use the rubbish society had thrown away

Andy Warhol

Characteristics of Andy Warhol's work:

• 1970's commercial artist.


• Repetition


• Sameness


• He work was there to be glanced at rather that to be looked at properly


• Mass production


• He used famous faces although most of his models were dead

Tom Wesselmann

Andy Warhol

1. 'Green Coca Cola bottles' 1962

Green Coca-Cola bottles shows us what most of Andy Warhol’s work was about; repetition of objects made by world famous brands. Works like this one signified the corporate dominance. This art work is very repetitive and this may signify the dominance of the Coca- Cola branded name.

2. 'Marilyn Diptych' 1962

Another of Andy Warhol's subjects was of famous people mainly dead. This picture was done shortly after Marilyn Monroe's death.It contains fifty images of the actress, which are all based on a single publicity photograph from a film called Niagra. The twenty-five pictures on the left side of the picture are brightly colored, while the twenty-five on the right are in black and white, and also blurred or faded. The contrast of the color images with those in black and white is sometimes thought to symbolize Monroe's life and death. The black and white pictures can also be said to represent her career in film or the photographs of her in magazines.

3. 'The big electric chair' 1963

This image was part of a collection called 'Death and Disaster' Andy Warhol wanted to start getting serious in his work and concentrate on death rather than life and popular culture. He wanted to make these unknown, people to become famous after there deaths. These paintings were the complete opposite to what Pop Art stood for. Although painted in the right style, these paintings didn't feature things found in popular culture and were so controversial that some galleries refused to put them on display.

This video talks about why Andy Warhol did this work and it also talks about the reaction of the public.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbt5iEKdw-s