Pop Art

The art movement - Pop art - originated in London art schools in the 1950's. Pop art is characterised by its

Extract from Wikipedia on the origins of pop art:

"The origins of pop art in North America and Great Britain developed differently. In the United States, it marked a return to hard-edged composition and representational art as a response by artists using impersonal, mundane reality, irony and parody to defuse the personal symbolism and "painterly looseness" of Abstract Expressionism. By contrast, the origin in post-War Britain, while employing irony and parody, was more academic with a focus on the dynamic and paradoxical imagery of American popular culture as powerful, manipulative symbolic devices that were affecting whole patterns of life, while improving prosperity of a society. Early pop art in Britain was a matter of ideas fueled by American popular culture viewed from afar, while the American artists were inspired by the experience of living within that culture. Similarly, pop art was both an extension and a repudiation of Dadaism. While pop art and Dadaism explored some of the same subjects, pop art replaced the destructive, satirical, and anarchic impulses of the Dada movement with detached affirmation of the artifacts of mass culture. Among those artists seen by some as producing work leading up to Pop art are Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, and Man Ray. Some of the work of Alex Katz anticipated Pop art."

"Drowning Girl" by Roy Lichtenstein

 

 

An interesting website is Pop Art Photographer by David Siqueiros. I didn't realise there would be a market for an a pop art dedicated photographer, but it seems there is. It is said that you learn something new everyday. I'm now done for the day.

What is Pop Art’s relationship to the dada movement?
"Pop art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them. And due to its utilization of found objects and images it is similar to Dada ... pop art was both an extension and a repudiation of Dadaism.". (Source: Wikipedia)

How did the American take on Pop Art differ from that of the UK?
"The origins of pop art in North America and Great Britain developed differently. In the United States, it marked a return to hard-edged composition and representational art as a response by artists using impersonal, mundane reality, irony and parody to defuse the personal symbolism and "painterly looseness" of Abstract Expressionism. By contrast, the origin in post-War Britain, while employing irony and parody, was more academic with a focus on the dynamic and paradoxical imagery of American popular culture as powerful, manipulative symbolic devices that were affecting whole patterns of life, while improving prosperity of a society. Early pop art in Britain was a matter of ideas fueled by American popular culture viewed from afar, while the American artists were inspired by the experience of living within that culture. Similarly, pop art was both an extension and a repudiation of Dadaism. While pop art and Dadaism explored some of the same subjects, pop art replaced the destructive, satirical, and anarchic impulses of the Dada movement with detached affirmation of the artifacts of mass culture. Among those artists seen by some as producing work leading up to Pop art are Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, and Man Ray. Some of the work of Alex Katz anticipated Pop art." (Source: Wikipedia)

How has the visual aesthetic of Pop Art influenced contemporary artists/ photographers?
"Artists still use today most of the features of the pop art style as inspiration for their artworks. Andy Warhol’s and Roy Lichtenstein’s works are the most often used as models for their contemporary works. You will see that today’s artists are creating cool illustrations, prints and posters with details like: dotted image, strong and multiple colors, series of images on one print, famous people faces and home utilities like tv, radio, cameras. Pop Art artwork, because of it’s bundle of colors represents a great inspirations for designers, whether we’re talking about product prints, posters, canvases, t-shirts or many other things." (Source: http://www.pixel77.com/the-influence-of-art-history-on-modern-design-pop-art/) Go to that website to see some applications of pop art onto various products.

How has the “subversive” movement of Pop Art influenced contemporary art/ photography?