Pop art is the most well-known, and most famous as the name suggests, artistic development of the 20th century. Pop culture was a reaction to consumerism, mass media, popular culture, and most importantly Americanism. Pop art introduced identifiable imagery into mainstream art. This movement emphasized that art can draw ideas and inspiration from any source.
Pop art takes after abstract expressionism as the former searches for trauma in advertising, cartoons, and popular imagery at large and the latter searches for it in the soul. But it was different from it in a way that it took subjects in everyday, mundane objects like newspapers, comic books, comic strips, soup cans, and magazines to produce vibrant compositions. Pop artists considered modernist art culture elitist and said there is no hierarchy of culture.
Major characteristics of pop art
- 1) Recognizable imagery- Pop art employed images and icons from popular products. This included commercial ad items like soda cans, road signs, celebrity photos, magazines, election catchphrases, etc. Even brand names and logos were utilized.
- 2) Bright colors- Bright and vibrant colors were the main components of Pop art. Primary colors (blue, yellow, red) were prominent pigments and appeared in many famous works.
- 3) Satire and Irony- Pop art included heavy use of humor. Artists use it to make a statement on current events, fads, and to challenge the status quo.
- 4) Innovative techniques- Pop artists employed printmaking to quickly reproduce images in large quantities. Silkscreen printing was used. It is a process through which ink is transferred onto paper or canvas through a mesh screen with a stencil. Lithography, or printing from a metal plate or stone, was used to create a signature visual style. Pop artists took inspiration from other areas of mainstream artistic culture and included them in their artworks. This is referred to as Appropriation of Art. This concept repeatedly used to diminish the distinction between high art and low art, thus reducing the difference between advertising from fine art.
- 5) Mixed media- Pop artists used to make collages of various types of media. They blended and utilized them to combine seemingly disparate images into a single canvas. This created totally modern narrative.
Famous artists associated with this movement are Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, Marisol, and Roy Lichtenstein.
