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.