Pop Art emerged in the late 1950s as a revolt against traditional views of art. Young artists felt what they saw in museums did not reflect their everyday lives. Pop Art incorporated imagery from popular culture like advertisements, comics, and media stars. Artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used techniques like silkscreening to blur lines between high and low art. Pop Art aimed to comment on commercialization and mass media through representations of ordinary objects and celebrities.

1. POP ART

2. What is Pop Art?
◦ Pop Art first came into the industry during the late 1950s in America, it however reached it’s
peak in the 1960s. It first began as a revolt against the already existing (and dominant)
approaches to Art, culture and traditional views on what Art should be. Young artists, at the
time, felt as though what they taught at school as well as what they saw in museums did not
have anything to do with their own lives or what they saw around them everyday. Modernist
critics were horrified by the artists’ use of such ‘low’ subject matter by their apparent ‘uncritical
treatment’ of it. In fact pop both took art into new areas of subject matter and developed new
ways of presenting it in art and can be seen as one of the first manifestations of postmodernism
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art

3. Additional Information
◦ Pop Art started with the New York artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstien, James Rosequist and
Claes Oldenburg, all of whom drew on popular imagery and were actually a part of an
international phenomenon. By creating various paintings or sculptures of mass culture objects
and media stars, the Pop art movement aimed to blur the boundaries between “high” art and
“low” culture. The concept of no hierarchy of culture and that art may borrow from any form of
source has been one of the most influential characteristics of Pop art.
https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/

4. Andy Warhol
◦ Andy Warhol was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the
visual art movement known as Pop art. Some of his best work include the silkscreen paintings
“Campbell’s Soup Cans” (1962) and “Marilyn Diptych” (1962). As well as the experimental
“Chelsea Girls” (1966) and the multimedia events known as the “Exploding Plastic Inevitable”
(1966 – 67).
◦ Andy Warhol’s motto was: “I think everybody should be a machine.” Which was reflected in the
way he created his prints. American Pop art was less subjective and referential than it’s British
counterpart, it being more aggressive and emblematic looking.

5. Roy Lichtenstein
◦ Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper
Johns and James Rosenquist and many other, he became a leading figure in the new art
movement known as Pop art. His work defined the premise of pop art through the use of
parody. His work was influenced by popular advertising and by comic book style. He described
pop art as “not” ‘American’ painting but actually industrial painting”. His paintings were
exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City. However his Pop style, which was inspired
by comic strips, was greeted by accusations of banality, lack of originality and later even
copying.
◦ Art had carried many references to popular culture through out the 20th century, but in
Lichtenstein’s work of styles, subject matter and techniques of reproduction common in popular
culture appeared to dominate the art entirely.

6. Facts
◦ Pop art wasn’t called that when it was originally released into the London masses – instead, it was
referred to as Propaganda Art.
◦ An intention of Pop art was to reflect on the normality and reality of people’s everyday lives; which is
shown in the amount of images and concepts from magazines, comics and television.
◦ A reason as to why Pop art is so effective and works so well is because of how it uses either an image
and/or idea from the artists familiar context and uses it along with other elements.
◦ As well as its use of advertising, comics and mass media, Pop art’s intention was to present it’s unique
way of creation, such as using said things as inspiration.
◦ Pop artists primarily used bright colours such as red, blue and yellow in their works. The colours
representing the references toward popular culture as opposed to any inner feelings or emotions of
what was being shown.
◦ Pop art can immediately be recognisable from its clear lines and representations of people, objects
and symbols.