pop art booklet

THE POP ART MOVEMENT

WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY CARRIE WALTERSnovember 2008

THE POP ART MOVEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE BEGINNINGpages 3-4

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERGpages 5-6

JASPER JOHNSpages 7-8

ROY LICHTENSTEINpages 9-10

ANDY WARHOLpages 11-12

CONCLUSIONpages13-14

BIBLIOGRAPHYpage 15

THE BEGINNING The Pop Art movement emerged in Britain and the United States in the mid 1950’s. The movement is largely thought of as a response to the post World War II era which was filled with an unprecedented level of consumerism, economic growth, and technological advancement. The post war prosperity allowed even middle-class families to comfortably participate in the booming consumer society. Pop Art expressed the emergent materialism and fainting class distinctions by using images and techniques (think mass production) from popular culture. The familiar, commercial themes made art something everyone could enjoy rather than just the elitist crowd.

3 the pop art movement

THE BEGINNING The move to materialism and Pop Art also marked a transi-tion from Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionism was non-representational and focused on the feeling and emotion in lines, colors, and shapes. Pop art brought back representational objects and was more ironic and mundane instead of symbolic and emotive. Pop Art originated in London through the Independent Group, a congregation of young artists that formed in 1952. The group chal-lenged traditional art and gathered inspiration from popular culture. At their first meeting, member Eduardo Paolozzi presented BUNK! a series of collages made from American magazines, comics, and other cultural graphics. BUNK! is considered the first instance of Pop Art and it also marked the initial use of “found ob-jects”, or objects that were not desig-nated for artistic use. After Paolozzi’s collages the group continued to focus on American culture until it grew apart in the early sixties. British Pop Art was perhaps a little idealistic and removed since they could not experience first hand what was happening an ocean away. Pop Art in the United States was more aggressive and in your face due to the ubiquity of advertising in America. Notable artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy War-hol captured the consumer phenome-na by taking popular objects and icons out of their context and turning them into a unique art form.

the pop art movement 4

BUNK! Evadne in Green Dimension 1952 Eduardo Paolozzi Collage, paper, glue and string, 13.0315 x 9.6457

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Robert Rauschenberg is well known for his “Combines”; works of art that incorporate everyday objects (found objects) with gestural paint-ing and sculpture. Rauschenberg’s “Combines”, bridged the gap between Abstract Expressionism and pop art. Rauschenberg, (born Milton Ernst Rauschenberg) was born in Port Arthur Texas in 1925. Though he originally aspired to be a pharmacist, he discovered his passion for art and everyday objects while he was serving in the U.S. Marines. After his stint in the Marines, Raschenberg attended the Academie Julian in Paris, and later Black Mountain College in North Caro-lina. At Black Mountain, Rauschen-berg encountered Josef Albers, a strict, traditionalist painting teacher. Albers’ firm teaching style had the opposite effect; it encouraged Rauschenberg to experiment.

Abstract Expressionism was described by Art News editor Thomas Hess as a “shift from aesthetics to ethics; the picture was no longer sup-posed to be Beautiful but True—an accurate representation or equivalence of the artist’s interior sensation or experience” (Kotz 90). Though a lot of Rauschenberg’s work can be consid-ered Abstract Expressionism, he himself rejected the Abstract Expres-sionism philosophy, saying that “There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself—words like ‘tortured,’ ‘struggle’ and ‘pain’. I could never see those qualities in paint. Jasper [Johns] and I used to start each day having to move out of Abstract Expressionism” (Kotz 90). One of Rauschenberg’s first combines, Monogram, is considered a seminal piece of art that had a great impact on modern art. Monogram

consists of paint and a wide assort-ment of unconventional objects; a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police

barrier, the heel of a shoe, and a tennis ball. Fellow Pop artist

Roy Lichenstein said that Monogram “marks the

Monogram. 1955-1959. Freestanding combine: oil, paper, fabric, printed paper, printed paper, printed reproduc-

tions, metal, wood, rubber shoe heel and tennis ball on canvas, with oil on angora goat and rubber tire, on wood

platform mounted on four caster, 42 x 63 1/4 x 64 1/2

end of the Abstract Expressionist era. The beginning of something that developed in the fifties and sixties. The return of the subject” (Kotz 90). The incorporation of various objects and images became a staple in Rauschenberg’s work. Rauschenberg said that he worked “in the gap between art and life,” and that he began “with the pos-sibilities of the material.” The diverse everyday objects used in the combines make them relatable and relevant for the observer, yet the heterogeneous nature of the objects allow the observer to form his or her own associations and overall interpretations. As the sixties approached he moved away from the three-dimen-sional and began using silkscreened photographs and magazine cutouts in conjunction with paint. Through the next couple of decades he con-tinued to experiment with printing and different materials.


I think a painting is more like the real world if it’s made out of the real world.“

”

Buffalo II 1964 Oil on canvas 96 x 72

Jasper Johns is also cred-ited with initiating the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Like Rauschenberg, Johns used commonplace objects in his work, or as he put it, “things the mind already knows.” Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia but spent his childhood and college years in South Carolina. He attended the University of South Carolina before moving to New York in 1949, where he met Robert Rauschenberg. The two worked in concert, challenging each other and the divisions between art and reality. Johns began working on his most recognizable paintings in 1954. This included the flag, target and number paintings using plaster, wax, and sometimes newspaper strips on canvas. This technique created a uniquely embedded texture. Johns also frequently employed casts made from his own face or those of friends.

Johns’ simple, subject based paintings are a clear representation of the shift from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. “His earliest works, from the mid-1950s were so blatantly representational and impersonal-looking that his art was im-mediately seen as making a clean break from the prevailing avant-garde style of Abstract Expressionism” (Bernstein 1). The familiarity of the subjects Johns used helped his work remain a sense of objectivity which helped connect art and reality. Johns made great efforts to keep his personality out of his work, unlike abstract expressionism which was focused on the artist’s own abstract sentiments. He wanted observers of his art to be able to see the possibilities and different perceptions of the subjects, instead of his own feelings. His simple color schemes and neutral designs kept his personal feelings an enigma. In 1960 he started using printmak-ing and began a series of sculptures made of simple items painted bronze.

I tend to like things that already exist.


Jasper Johns with target paintings in the backround. Photographed by Robert Rauschenberg in 1955 ”“

Target with Four Faces. 1955. E

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Flag. 1954-1955. Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, 42 1/4 x 60 5/8

JASPER JOHNS

ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Roy Lichtenstein is best known for his manipulation of comic book imagery that brought a familiar com-mercial style into a relatable high art form. Lichtenstein was born in New York and studied at the Art Students League of New York before attend-ing Ohio State University, where he was later hired as an art instructor. Lichtenstein resided in Cleveland before moving back to New York in 1957 where he continued to teach and paint in addition to working odd jobs.

Lichtenstein embraced the Abstract Expressionist style for most of the fifties. He started teaching at Rutgers in 1960 where he was influenced by colleague Allan Kaprow. He gained an interest in pop imagery and began his first pop paintings in 1961. He used cartoons and took inspiration from commercial printing. Look Mickey was his first piece of work to incorpo-rate Ben Day dots and the comic book style. Lichtenstein used strong outlines and bold colors to makes his paintings

look like reproductions of popular comics. While criticized by some as mere copies of something that had already been done, Lichtenstein ar-gued that his paintings are “entirely transformed in that my purpose and perception are entirely different.” Lichtenstein moved on to different subjects and mediums by 1965 including the three-dimen-sional, packaging, and parodies, but comic-book elements were still often incorporated.

WHAAM! 1967 Offset lithograph (diptych), in yellow, red, blue, and black, on Huntsman Superwhite Catridge Paper 24 3/4 x 58

Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn’t look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.”

“

WHAAM! 1967 Offset lithograph (diptych), in yellow, red, blue, and black, on Huntsman Superwhite Catridge Paper 24 3/4 x 58


Mr. Bellamy. 1961. Oil on canvas 56 x 42 1/2

Andy Warhol is often considered “the personification of pop”(Moorhouse 176). While other artists used pop culture as inspira-tion or material, Warhol immersed himself in the glamorous consum-erism of the fifties and sixties and developed an obsession with pop, not just a fascination or interest. He was materialistic himself and em-braced the American dream of being successful, rich, and famous. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Rusyn immigrant parents. He came down with St. Vitu’s dance when he was in third grade. The disease left him bed ridden for months during which he drew, listened to the radio and collected images of movies stars. Warhol later stated that this period was important in developing his character and personality. Warhol went to the Carnegie Institute of Technology before moving to New York in 1949. He worked as a com-mercial illustrator for most of the fifties before he decided he wanted to become a serious artist and tran-sition to painting. Warhol’s infatuation with the tabloids and “intuition that banal, commonplace subjects would permit him to enter the realm of ‘high’ art” (Baal-Teshuva 9), prompted him to make paintings of consumer products like Campbell’s

soup cans and Coca-Cola. He also painted celebrity icons like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Elvis Presley. The paintings enhanced the materialism of the American culture and made the American dream into an art form. With his paintings, Warhol revolutionized repetition. He used rows and a grid format that abstracted the familiar images. In 1962 Warhol began using a silkscreen, which enabled him to mass produce portraits and other art. Mass production helped build the legend of Warhol’s “Factory”; his studio which also functioned as a clubhouse for his entourage made up of assistants, models, fellow artists, musicians, and celebrities. Warhol was not limited to art, he dabbled in film, music, and the jour-nalistic community. The connec-tions he made turned Warhol into a celebrity and made the “Factory” the place to be. Warhol continued to make portraits, but also embarked on entrepreneurial art and activities. In the seventies and eighties Warhol received commissions to make paintings for multiple brands and he created his own magazine, record la-bel, and nightclub. With his blatant materialism and love for money and fame, Warhol integrated reality and art on a completely different level than his fellow artists.


Art is what you can get away with.”“

Campbell’s Soup. 1969 Screenprint on Paper

ANDY WARHOL


”Self-portrait. 1967 Synthetic polymer and silkscreen on canvasSelf-portrait. 1966 Synthetic polymer and silkscreen on canvas

As observed in the works of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, pop art is inextricably tied to consumerism. With advertising becoming more prevalent, a consumerism based art move-ment became possible. Capitalizing on household images and brand logos, pop art elevated them to art. Art is almost invariably a reflection of society, and to have wide appeal it must capture and expose an element of society that is both accessible and familiar to the public at large—which is precisely what pop art did, allowing it to establish itself as a major art form.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBaal-Teshuva, Jacob. Andy Warhol. New York, NY: Prestel by te Neues Publishing Company, 1993

Moorhouse, Paul. Pop Art Portraits. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.

Kotz, Mary Lynn. Rauschenberg/Art and Life. Second. New York: Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, 200 Salsi, Claudio. Advertising and Art. First. Milano, Italy: Skira Editore S.p.A., 2007.

Bernstein, Roberta. Jasper Johns. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc, 1992.

Corlett, Mary Lee. The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein. First. New York, NY: Hudson Hills Press Inc, 1994.

“Robert Rauschenberg.” American Masters. PBS. 20 Nov. 2008 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/epi-sodes/robert-rauschenberg/about-the-artist/49/>.

Adelman, Bob. Roy Lichtenstein’s ABC. First. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1999.

“Andy Warhol.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Nov 2008, 06:57 UTC. 13 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andy_Warhol&oldid=251511487>.

“Pop Art.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Nov 2008, 09:37 UTC. 13 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pop_art&oldid=251526844>.

“Robert Rauschenberg.” Wikipedia, The Free En-cyclopedia. 12 Nov 2008, 19:09 UTC. 13 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Rauschenberg&oldid=251391719>.

“Jasper Johns.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13 Nov 2008, 04:06 UTC. 13 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jasper_Johns&oldid=251490725>.

“Roy Lichtenstein.” Wikipedia, The Free Ency-clopedia. 12 Nov 2008, 20:26 UTC. 13 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roy_Lichtenstein&oldid=251406883>.

* Wikipedia was used for general facts and references, not as a primary source.


Carrie WaltersThe Pop Art MovementHP Color Laserjet 555oXerox Laser Paper 11 x 17Helvetica Neue Helvetica Neue Condensed BlackGeorgia

Special thanks to all the residents of Hughes 2

“Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”

- ANDY WARHOL

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