'Pop Art Myths' and the 'MYTHS & HEROES' Notion

   Pop Art began on the late 50s and the the early 60s bringing with it what would be a groundbreaking movement at the time. Like everything that starts from scratch, it was sightly criticized and even more in this case, because Pop Art took pieces of art from classic world and them into modern pieces of art. That made people think they were copying when they were recreating.

'Pop Art Myths' and the 'MYTHS & HEROES' Notion

Roy Lichtenstein, Look Mickey, 1961

Myths and Heroes. Actually what are myths? and what about heroes?

     A myth is a popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal. 
    There are two possible definitions for the Pop Art hero, at least, for this Roy Lichtenstein's painting. The nearest  one would be, the protagonist of a story, the principal male or female character in a novel, poem, or dramatic presentation. The second one, but that could fix as well in this kind of hero, is a character with noble qualities who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice- that is, heroism - for some greater good of all humanity. Both of them fix in because here we are talking about two characters that are made to teach little kids. These characters must face problems to teach children how to resolve them. And of course those characters are the main characters, if these adventures will happen to other characters would be meaningless series. We are going to talk about myths because for children and actual adults and teenagers Mickey's adventures became almost mythological.

This Roy's painting based on the famous drawing illustration of Bob Grant and Bob Totten from Walt Disney Studios called, Donald Duck Lost and Found. This illustration was made on 1961 by Roy Lichtenstein. It illustrates one of the most famous Myths in the world, the Narcisus' myth. Dolnald's fishing with Mickey and the rod has taken his T-Shirt at the back, while he is focusing on the water. Obviously it must be difficult to make this "fish" get out of the water that's why he says "Look Mickey, I've hooked a big one!". In a psychological way we could say that he is overestimating himself. Like Narcissus did  with his pretenders, before Nemesis made him drown in the pool because of his reflexion. Like in the myth, Narcissus/Donald is the only character of the story that doesn't see what's really happening because he is focused on his reflexion. One doesn't see he is drowning and the other doesn't see his fishing the back of his T-shirt. Like every Pop Art painting, here, Roy takes an ancient or mythic story and renews it to make it maybe more famous or more accessible to people. Here, it's even double renewed, because Walt Disney Studios already did it with the original myth.

Sincerely I loved this image illustrated by the painting. Myths are things that really interest me. I really love Greek mythology and it interests me very much to know where all those myths come from. But I also have to say that I prefer much more the original painting because even if I really like the Pop Art version I'm a fan of Disney's creations and much more of retro ones. So I think that here, my opinion it's not the most objective one. Anyways, I love this kind of movements that bring again things that happened a long time ago adapting the way to bring it to the people's way of life.

Pop Art Myths

Pop Art is a late 1950s and a early 1960s movement. It's a groundbreaking movement liberating and bringing an end to the division between "high" and "low" culture. It endorsed the new culture of technology and consumerism. Thanks to the reciprocal exchanges between art and any type of visual and popular culture, every object could become art. Every Pop Artist wants to make this innovative impression.

Collage, advertising, comics

1956, Richard Hamilton's
 Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? 

   This collage is probably the first Pop Art image. Being influenced by Dadaism and Cubism, Pop Artists followed the tradition of the collage but adding some subversive and allegorical components.

1955, Andy Warho
À La Recherche du Shoe Perdu

1961, Roy Lichtenstien
Look Mickey

   This portfolio of different and anachronistic shoes, made at the beginning of the Warho's career, makes a crucial point to the birth of this new tendency.

  This painting was the first Lichtentien pop painting. It was based on Donald Duck Lost and Found illustrated by Bob Grant and Bob Totten. It's an illustration of the myth of Narcisus.

Bob Grant and Bob Totten
Donald Duck Lost and Found

         Emblems


  The media knew a huge development in the mid-20th century. A mass of ads, slogans, brand names and logos invaded people lives. It was the perfect opportunity for the artists to be as well invaded by the inspiration a new ideas. A lot of every days life objects were represented on different formats with words like "eat", "hug"... 

John Haughey
Coke Bottles and Pepsi Caps

                    Myths

Andy Warhol
Christian Bale from Psycho

   Hollywood created some idols for the cinema business world. Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando were some of them. Lot of them worked with some Pop Artists to become even more famous. That's why, some how, appeared some fetishes to a couple of actors. Artists were able to combine media and culture.

Wolf Vostell
Marilyn Idol

John Lennon psychedelic portrait

                           Portraits

With Pop Art portraits were as well revolutionized. Pop Artists did not search to represent reality, in fact, what they wanted was, across painting some images or lines, let the spectator find the hidden idea, a face, maybe some expressions... This way portraits become simulacrums.

     Landscapes, Interiors, Still lifes

    

   With the consumer culture appeared some communicative codes bearing arbitrary meanings. This was the principal consequence to Pop Artists reinterpreting traditional genres of paintings, landscapes, interiors, still lifes... The genres are adapted to the contemporary urban milieu, a private domestic space, in the traditional still life; an artificial composition arranged by the artist, in the avant-garde. It becomes a public, commercial space.

Tom Wesselmann
The smoker

Tom Wesselmann
Big study for Nude

                  

                     Urban eroticism

The media and the 20th century were flooded by the sexual freedom. The eroticism invaded pictures and ads. Tobacco, cars, drinks, food... Everything was surrounded by sexy women and men. These pictures symbolized beauty, sex, fertility, love and (because of the ads) prosperity and comfort.

History painting

Andy Warhol
Mao

The media evolution allowed Pop Artists to access much better to news and make some critics and illustrations of contemporary events. They were much oportunities to send messages to people and spread artists' opinions. Also, if some news were not well known Pop Art eases people to know the truth.

              Art about art

Équipo Crónica
The Living Room 

In
Pop Art it's essential to use images on images, art on art. This is the way to pose questions about the evolution. Artists can create new versions of Botticelli using silkscreened photographs. It also helps Pop Artists to demythologize certain master pieces. Using older paintings they create the paradox, the exchanges between the different cultures...

To sum up and to put it in a nutshell, Pop Art is an innovative movement that picks important things from each culture and modify it to make their own culture. We could see this kind of actions like an irreverence, disrespecting and profanity. But actually I see it like an evolution. Without no evolution we would still picking bananas from the trees. I think it's something good and necessary, after all, every artistic movement did it, and why would one of them be better than the others? Everyone has born thanks to the needs of the populations or what was fashionable at the time.

Myths and Heroes Worksheet

Here is my Myths and Heroes WORKSHEET