The birth of POP!

Happy Days, Baby BOOMS and consumer culture.

Early POP!

• Artists began to move away from concepts addressed by Abstract Expressionists about the inner struggle of the self.

• Instead, they began to look out into the ever-changing landscape in which they lived for inspiration.

• At this time the world was flooded with consumer goods, new imagery and a new way of life.

Jasper Johns

• 1954 he destroyed all of his prior work.

• He worked as a bookseller in NY and also worked closely with Robert Rauschenburgdecorating the window displays and walls of Tiffany Co.

• He then painted “Flag”

Flag Detail and Purpose:

This painting is used with a medium called encaustic.It is a heated wax mixed with pigment that is layered up to create a translucent texture.He did not only include pigment/paint but layers of magazines and newspaper clippings from around his studio.

MEANING:Johns began to turn to images that already existed in the world, there was no need to invent new imagery when bombarded by so many each day.

Johh’s removed an ordinary object from his experience and attempted to empty it of historical significance, recreating it in paint through the art of painting.

We can recognize the image and know what it means but at the same time see that it was painted.

Early Robert Rauschenberg

Began to incorporate found objects into his work. Collage or assemblage.

This is significant because it allows artists to have a variety of new materials to work with.

Found objects and brought cheap mass produced materials were elevated to High ART status!

Richard Hamilton the Father of POP ART.

Pop art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous and BIG Business.

‘Just What Makes Todays Homes So Different, So Appealing?”

• Consumption of Mass Media

• A new concentrated form of ironic picture of the postmodern Society.

• Adam and Eve “Interior”

• Symbols of American Life

• Reflects the economic and social dreams of the American People.

• POP!= Adams Fig leaf and the start of a movement.

Tom Wessleman

Screwed in coke bottlesPainted fruit and patterns, Clippings from magazines.

In edible, almost toxic andFalling into your lap.

Composition.

“with collage you can use anything and that Adds variety.”

Early Andy Warhol

Warhol

• Began as a fashion illustrator SHOES

• Commercial artist, first

• Images were of comic strips

• In NY department stores.

• Created a new kind of still life

Displayed as they wouldBe at a grocery store

Each hand painted with Not trace of expressiveGesture or individuality

Converted into a HEROICScale. Larger than life, but from life.

Used serial repetition to Question the traditional concept of originality and somehow managed to turn an everyday item into a collectors item.

Commenting on the Automation and Dehumanizing of modern society and consistently denying any claim to originality.

Confused the boundaries of mass art and High culture while challenging the Conventions of museum and gallery settings.

Roy Lichtenstein

James Rosenquist

Later Rauschenberg

WARHOL“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

Film, Fame and Death

The blurring made the images feel like a movie reel and hinted at the passing nature of time and fame.

“People sometimes say that the way things happen in the movies is unreal, but actually, it’s the way things happen to you in life that’s unreal. The movies make emotions look strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it’s like you’re watching television — you don’t feel anything.”

“In the future, Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”