Pop Art – Digital

Pop Art – Digital

Pop art Looks out into the world. It doesn’t look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.

Roy Lichtenstein

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in the United States and Great Britain. The movement was characterized by the use of popular culture imagery, such as advertising, comic books, and mass-produced consumer goods, as the subject matter for art. Pop art was a reaction against the dominant abstract expressionist movement of the time and sought to democratize art by making it accessible to the masses (Wolf, J. 2012).

One of the most iconic figures of the Pop art movement was Andy Warhol, best known for his silkscreen prints of celebrities and consumer goods, such as Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles. Warhol’s work challenged traditional notions of art by elevating everyday objects to the status of high art.

Fig. 1 – Andy Warhol, “Campbell’s Soup I” screenprint on paper (1968).

Another important Pop artist was Roy Lichtenstein, who used the techniques of comic book art to create large-scale paintings of comic book scenes. Lichtenstein’s work challenged the distinction between high and low art by elevating a mass-produced medium to the level of fine art.

Fig. 2 – Drowning Girl, Roy Lichtenstein (1963).

Claes Oldenburg was a Pop Artist who worked with soft sculptures and installations, often creating oversized versions of everyday objects like hamburgers, lipsticks, and typewriters.

Fig. 3 – Bottle O’ Notes, Claes Oldenburg

James Rosenquist was a Pop Artist known for his large-scale, collage-style paintings that incorporated elements of advertising and consumer culture.

Fig. 4 – James Rosenquist pictured in 2005 with his work Brazil. Photograph: Wolfgang Weihs/EPA

According to the Art Story Foundation, “Pop was birthed in the United Kingdom in the 1950s amidst a postwar socio-political climate where artists turned toward celebrating commonplace objects and elevating the every day to the level of fine art (Wolf, J. 2012)”.

We can therefore assume that Pop Art was a movement that wanted, on principle, to celebrate the simple everyday life of people who were not introduced to the art world until then, which made it more easily introduced to the masses, as it spoke directly to them. And with what was common in their daily lives.

The Pop art movement was not just limited to visual art. It also had an impact on music, fashion, and film. The music of The Beatles, for example, was heavily influenced by Pop art, with their album covers featuring colourful graphic designs.

Fig. 5 – Yellow Submarine, Edelman, H. (1968).

Pop art also had a significant impact on fashion, with designers such as Mary Quant and André Courrèges incorporating bold graphic designs and vivid colors into their work. Pop art’s influence can also be seen in 1960s fashion, which featured bright colours, bold patterns, and modern styles.

Fig. 6 – Campbell’s Souper Dress

One of the key themes of pop art was the idea of mass production and consumerism. Pop artists were interested in the way consumer goods and advertising shaped people’s perceptions of the world around them.

Pop Art these days

Currently, the strong presence of Pop Art references is in practically everything, movies, books, games, websites and mainly in advertising. Nowadays, we have great artists like Lobo, a Brazilian Pop Artist who works travelling the world painting pictures, murals, and even soda packaging, promoting the movement today.

Fig. 7 – Brazilian, Lobo(2020)
Fig. 8 – Tribute to the front-line professionals, Lobo(2020).

In conclusion, Pop Art was a cultural movement that challenged traditional artistic forms and institutions, using innovative images from popular culture and mass-produced materials. Its most essential artists left a lasting impact on the art world and continue to be celebrated and studied today.

The characteristics of Pop Art:

  1. Popular culture: Pop Art drew inspiration from popular cultures, such as advertising, comic books, magazines, television, and movies. It embraced everyday imagery and mass-produced objects, celebrating consumer culture and mass media.
  2. Bold colours: Pop Art is known for its use of bright and bold colours, often with flat colour planes or screen-printed effects. These vivid colours were used to create striking and eye-catching images that captured the viewer’s attention.
  3. Simple, recognizable imagery: Pop Art often features simplified, iconic images that are easily recognizable. These could be everyday objects like soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, or images of celebrities and famous people.
  4. Irony and parody: Pop Art often uses humour, irony, and parody to make a statement or critique society and popular culture. Artists sometimes incorporated recognizable images in unexpected ways, playing with the viewer’s expectations and challenging traditional artistic conventions.
  5. Appropriation: Pop Art artists often appropriated images, styles, and techniques from various sources, repurposing them to create new works of art. They used techniques like collage, screen printing, and assemblage to combine different elements in unexpected ways.
  6. Mass production: Many Pop Art artists embraced mass production techniques, using methods like screen printing to create multiple copies of their artworks.
  7. The blurring of high and low art: Pop Art blurred the boundaries between high art (fine art) and low art (mass-produced, commercial art). It questioned traditional artistic hierarchies and values by incorporating elements from both high and low cultures.

Bibliography

Tate (no date) Pop art, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art (Accessed: March 5, 2023).

Wolf, J. (2012) Pop art movement overview, The Art Story. The Art Story Contributors. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/ (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Lobo (2020) The influence of pop art in the world of fashion, Lobo Pop Art. Available at: https://lobopopart.com.br/en/fashion/ (Accessed: March 5, 2023).

Pictography

Fig 1. Warhol, A. (2017) Lot 121: Andy Warhol | Campbell’s Soup I (F. & S. II.44-53). Invaluable. Available at: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-i-f-s-ii-44-53-121-c-d7643afb86 (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig 2. Wolf, J. (no date) Pop art movement overview, The Art Story. The Art Story Contributors. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/ (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig 3 = Claes Oldenburg (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claes_Oldenburg (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig 4 = Rosenquist, J. (2019) James Rosenquist: Warhol’s Favourite Artist celebrated in london show, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/10/james-rosenquist-warhols-favourite-artist-celebrated-in-london-show (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig 5 – Edelman, H. (2023) Yellow Submarine (album), Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Submarine_(album) (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig 6 – Lobo, A.W. (2020) The influence of pop art in the world of fashion, Lobo Pop Art. Lobo. Available at: https://lobopopart.com.br/en/fashion/ (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig 7 = Pop art paintings of Brazilian artist Lobo! (2020) Lobo Pop Art. Lobo. Available at: https://lobopopart.com.br/en/portfolio/pop-art-paintings-artist-lobo/ (Accessed: March 19, 2023).

Fig. 8 – Lobo (2020) Quarantine art: Artist creates during quarantine, Lobo Pop Art. Lobo. Available at: https://lobopopart.com.br/en/art-in-quarantine/ (Accessed: March 19, 2023).