Modern and contemporary
Pop Art
c. 1955–1970
Images taken from advertising, comics and consumer goods, presented as fine art.
Overview
Pop Art emerged in London in the mid-1950s and in New York shortly afterward, partly as a reaction against the seriousness of Abstract Expressionism. Artists borrowed the imagery and techniques of mass culture: product packaging, comic strips, magazine photographs and celebrity portraits.
Andy Warhol used commercial screenprinting to repeat images of soup cans and film stars, and Roy Lichtenstein enlarged comic-book panels complete with their printing dots. The work was cool, ironic and deliberately impersonal, and it blurred the line between high art and popular culture.
What defines it
- Imagery from advertising, comics and mass media
- Bright flat color and hard edges
- Mechanical techniques such as screenprinting and repetition
Works to know
- Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?
- Campbell’s Soup Cans
- Marilyn Diptych
- Whaam!