Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that became apparent in Britain and the United States. It was the dominant avant-garde style. This form of avant-garde art enabled the bright colour scheme to highlight some elements in contemparaneous culture, and made it easier to reduce the separation between the commercial arts and the fine arts. In Pop art, material is often visually withdrawn from its familiar context, separated and blended with unrelated material.

The term Pop-Art which means ‘Popular’ art was established by Lawrence Alloway. A movement represented by means of consumerism and popular culture imagery. Portrayed by vivid, uncomplicated, daily imagery, flamboyant block colours, fascinating to look at and had a modern "hip" sensation. Ordinary sources of Pop iconography were advertisements, merchandise packaging, comic strips, images of film-stars, pop-stars and movies. Pop art incorporates a vast selection of work with extremely dissimilar perspectives and positions.

British Pop-Art became apparent from within the Independent Group which was a non-formal group of artists made up of painter Richard Hamilton, curator and art critic Lawrence Alloway, and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, that met up with each other in the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Artists within the Independent Group in London instigated the usage of ‘pop’ in reference to art, where shortly American artists imitated their track and embodied popular culture into their artwork as well. Although the individual styles diversify considerably, all the artists maintain a state of sharing features and attributes in their selection of popular culture imagery as their basic theme.

Pop art emerged by the New York artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and Claes Oldenburg. They all depicted popular imagery and were actually part of an international phenomenon. By creating portrayals and even sculptures of abundant cultural articles and media celebrities, the Pop art movement aspired to make less distinct the dividing lines between ‘high’ art and ‘low’ culture. The extremely dominant features of Pop art is the notion that there is no social scale of culture and that art itself may adopt from any reference.

One of the most noteworthy pop artists was surely the artist Andy Warhol, a highly successful magazine illustrator and graphic designer. One of his most well-known depictions was that of a Campbell's soup can and also Coca-Cola bottles. Warhol is known for creating artistic portrayals of Marilyn Monroe. He must have had some impact on how and why he created the artworks that he was prominent for. Andy Warhol is most renowned for his bright-coloured portraits of celebrities, but the way he dealt with the topic has differed considerably throughout his career.

Campbell's soup can (1968) by Andy Warhol

Another remarkable pop artist was Roy Lichtenstein, an American painter, sculptor, and litographer. He maintained his interest in the abstract expressionism but subsequently was drawn to pop art. He was known for creating pop art style replications of master painters such as Monet. Lichtenstein created art using comic strips as the topic by appropriating the techniques he used to produce the images in comic books to create his paintings. His high-impact, iconic images have since become closely associated with Pop art, and his procedure of creating images, which combined features of mechanical replications and hand drawings.

Whaam! (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein

Architect and design studio De Pas, D’Urbino & Lomazzi was founded by three prominent Italian designers of the same name who are famous for their unusual seating design incorporating pop-culture icons such as the inflatable Blow and the kitschy Joe Sofa. The trio paid particular attention on architecture, urban development and industrial design. They developed a particular interest in inventing furniture and interim buildings featuring avant-garde signs, materials and industrial technologies. The trio was influenced by pop culture and consequently focused on radical seating objects. They took the perspectives of a modern society in which furniture was no longer required to last a lifetime, so they introduced a collection of furniture that represented completely the contrary. The transparent armchair Blow (1967) was manufactured from PVC film. It was the first inflatable living room furniture to be mass-produced and was commercially successful.

The Inflatable Blow (1967) by De Pas, D’Urbino & Lomazzi

Joe Sofa (1970) by De Pas, D’Urbino & Lomazzi

Cactus coat rack (1972), is an article Guido Drocco  co-designed with fellow Italian Franco Mello for the Gufram brand. The Cactus demands the dividing line between interior and exterior, natural and artificial, and demonstrates the kind of testing that was enabled by the period’s quick developments in new materials. A collection of revolutionary designs which formed part of Gufram’s series was produced in self-hardening polyurethane foam with an original lacquer finish, called Guflac.

           

Cactus coat rack (1972) by Guido Drocco

References

Research:

"Pop-Art Movement" [online]. Visual Arts Encyclopedia. Available at:                                          http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/pop-art.htm [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"Roy Lichtenstein Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. 2017. TheArtStory.org . Content compiled and written by Rachel Gershman. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. Available from:                                                                                                                                                          http://www.theartstory.org/artist-lichtenstein-roy.htm [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"Pop Art Movement Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. 2017. TheArtStory.org . Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors.
Available from:                                                                                                                                                           http://www.theartstory.org/movement-pop-art.htm [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"Joe" [online].  Centro Studi Poltronova. Available at:                                          http://www.centrostudipoltronova.it/portfolio_post/joe-3/ [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"Guido Drocco" [online].  Pamono. Available at:                                          https://www.pamono.eu/designers/guido-drocco [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"De Pas, D'Urbino, Lomazzi" [online].  Designwissen. Available at:                                          http://www.designwissen.net/seiten/de-pas-durbino-lomazzi [Accessed 14 May 2017]

Images:

"Pop-Art Movement" [online]. Visual Arts Encyclopedia. Available at:                                          http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/pop-art.htm [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"Joe" [online].  Centro Studi Poltronova. Available at:                                          http://www.centrostudipoltronova.it/portfolio_post/joe-3/ [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"Guido Drocco" [online].  Pamono. Available at:                                          https://www.pamono.eu/designers/guido-drocco [Accessed 14 May 2017]

"De Pas, D'Urbino, Lomazzi" [online].  Designwissen. Available at:                                          http://www.designwissen.net/seiten/de-pas-durbino-lomazzi [Accessed 14 May 2017]