Essay On Pop Art

1416 Words3 Pages

Tina Parshall
Leonhardt
ART 206
December 1, 2017

American Pop Art
“Pop Art is for Everyone” ~ Andy Warhol
Pop art traded the notion that elements of contemporary art could be elevated to art status allowing for the expression of bold new and challenging boundaries. Everyone at some point has viewed pop art in their lifetime. Pop art is a continually changing art form based on consumerism and forces the artists to keep up with the progression of marketing. Pop art in America emerged from artists who looked at bring representational art to the forefront. The use of impersonal irony and parody in pop art was used as symbolism. The pop art movement could be considered more of a cultural and social movement. Pop art influenced the business …show more content…

Pop art began in Britain in 1950 by a group of artists who called themselves the Independent Group consisting of young painters, writers, architects, sculptors, and critics wanting to challenge the traditional views of abstract expressionism. The movement was made official by Lawrence Alloway in the article, “The Arts and Mass Media.” (February 1958) Pop art values pop culture by not criticizing materialism and consumerism. Instead, pop art recognizes and embraces the united generation of shopping. Eduardo Paolozzi, the co-founder of the Independent Group, introduced ten titles called Bunk! consisting of items found in advertising, magazines, imagery, and television. This group created the term “Pop” defined as, “the sum of the arts designed for simultaneous consumption by a numerically large audience.” Paolozzi wrote the term “pop” in a little bubble on his art work from Bunk called, I Was a Rich Man’s Play Thing. This is where the name pop art was …show more content…

Johnson was best friends with Warhol but did not seek fame. He created some of the earliest works of pop art but never had them published or seen until they were found after his death. Johnson was an Avant Garde artist. He focused on the process of art and not the final product. His most iconic work is a picture of James Dean smoking in which he added two round Lucky Strike cigarette ads on the picture to resemble Mickey Mouse ears. Johnson was also a pioneer in making pop art collages. Pop artists believe everything is interconnected and they express this in their artwork. They look for inspiration in the world around them.
There are art critics today who do not take pop art seriously or see it as artistic expression. Critics of pop art think it is gimmicky and mocks traditional art by making people question the hierarchy of art. However, pop art is the still the most popular and sought out art styles by collectors today. It is no doubt that pop art is so popular in a world full of consumption. Pop artists recognized this and create a sought-out art

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