Pop Art: The Negative Impact Of Materialism And Consumerism

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American economy in 1950s grew by 37%. During this period of time, a heightened economy led Americans to continuously spend more on consumer goods. The formation of Pop Art effectively influenced the greatest consumer economy of the world. The further development of materialism is due to an art movement during this time. The changes in art, especially in the development of modern art, led to the expanding negative impact of materialism in America. Andy Warhol, the leading figure of Pop art culture, portrayed consumerism through his art. Pop art shown in advertisements and comic books helped to create a new definition of materialism. Materialism is now defined as: “a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values” (“Materialism”). Andy Warhol and his artworks were catalysts for the materialistic culture that characterizes contemporary society and continues to influence the world today. Materialism leads people to be financially irresponsible. People are more likely to buy certain products because …show more content…

Consumerism is directly related to materialism. The idea of consumerism encourages over consumption, which leads to being wasteful. Materialism provokes people to overspend their money on unnecessary material possessions, which is also wasteful. In his famous depictions of Campbell’s soup cans, he painted the soup can 32 times (Johnson). These paintings both display materialism and consumerism. Warhol can easily paint one soup can, but instead he painted 32 soup cans. The soup cans allude to the unnecessary mass consumption that people have. Instead of purchasing one soup can, people might end up with 32 soup cans. It is not only unnecessary to buy so many soup cans, but also incredibly wasteful. Materialistic people tend to purchase items without being financially responsible because they end up overspending their

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