What is the Pop Art style?

This article will discuss what is pop art style and why it is important in today's art.

What is Pop Art Style?

Pop art is defined as an art movement that originated in the 1950's. Many artists considered the work of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, to be the first major proponents of the movement.

The style is known for including elements of popular culture in their paintings.

This means paintings that are influenced by pop culture, such as posters, advertising, or comic books. The style tends to feature bright colors, bold shapes, and striking compositions.

In the early days of the movement, Warhol focused on screen and magazine images, and Johns and Rauschenberg, pop stars.

Warhol's work tends to focus on social issues and celebrity culture, while Johns' work focuses more on abstract shapes and colors. And, as of now, Rauschenberg's work takes the concept a step further, combining popular American pop culture with non-representational sculpture to create art.

Why is Pop Art Important in Today's Art?

To be honest, there's not a whole lot that makes me nostalgic for my teenage years. However, pop art does.

Pop art was the artist's answer to the mass media. This means the media was, and still is, prevalent in our everyday lives.

Pop art, as a movement, is a simple way for artists to respond to mass media. They paint popular images and media that we see every day in order to make a statement about their artistic interpretations of it.

This also adds another dimension to pop art because of the simplicity of the subject matter. When painting popular pop culture, artists are free to create whatever they want without concern for significance or complexity.

All they need to do is paint a picture.

With this in mind, Warhol, Johns, and Rauschenberg were able to get their point across with minimal distraction. In addition, it allows the viewer to relate to the subject matter without being over-committed.

Pop Art is still very relevant today, especially with current events in the media.

Who popularized Pop Art?

Much of what defines pop art style can be attributed to the 1950s, and particularly the work of Andy Warhol. This artist created portraits of the world's most recognizable people, including Marilyn Monroe, the Queen Elizabeth, Jacqueline Kennedy and Elvis Presley.

What set Warhol apart from other painters was his use of color and commercializing his images for a mass market.

Like all artists, Warhol used commercialism to sell his work. His forgeries and the commercialization of his work led to the passing of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which made it illegal for artists to exhibit their work for sale on the walls of commercial galleries.

While Warhol was accused of selling his art for commercial purposes, Warhol was not the first artist to charge for his art. This is an oft-overlooked fact in pop art history, as his work was the first and still has the most impact on pop art.

The legal fight to enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act gave artists the freedom to sell their art to private collectors.

Later, following Warhol, others began to use art to sell product, such as Roy Lichtenstein and Keith Haring. Haring was the most famous of the three, as he began to use his art to sell American Express cards.

In 1985, the first pop art auction took place in New York City. This auction included paintings, posters and other works of art.

The auction caused much controversy, as it was deemed a new form of art that could be used to charge for art.

Eventually, this battle of art versus commerce ended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the art dealers who wanted the artworks. It set a precedent for art dealers to charge for art, which later became the core for the second generation of pop art, which emerged after the 1980s.

This new wave of art included artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Other Artists in Pop Art Style

While Warhol was known for his Warholista Studio, Claes Oldenburg did not have a studio. Instead, he created sculptures from junked car parts and other found objects.

He created both sculptural and figurative pieces, and used sculptures as symbols and metaphors for his art.

Some artists focused on social themes or personalities such as Richard Hamilton. Hamilton worked as an artist and professor, creating many iconic works such as the Coca-Cola Bottling plant in Atlanta, Ga.

Like Warhol, many other artists sought to create a new type of art, and created characters such as the "Frida Kahlo Coffeehouse Girl," Dolly Parton and "Elvis Lives" on a stack of TVs. The popularity of Warhol's portraits and Lichtenstein's geometric paintings may have created this style, but the artists themselves were the ones who were able to make it become mainstream.