Meaning and Definition of Pop Art | Concept and What is.
What is Pop Art?
Pop Art or Pop art is a visual art movement, which was born both in England and in the United States in the 1950's. Some artists emerged as a reaction against abstract expressionism, which considered that it was not understandable to the average person. Pop Art was characterized by using themes and techniques based on the popular culture of mass-produced as advertising, comics, and other cultural objects.
The term "Pop Art" is credited to the British critic Lawrence Alloway, who spoke so popular in his essay The Arts and art in 1958, the Mass Media (the arts and the mass media). However, the movement was born in London, England, with a work of Richard Hamilton called "What is what makes today so different homes, so funny?", a collage that is considered the first work of Pop art.
In 1952, he created in London, the Independent Group, considered the forerunner of Pop art. It was a group of young artists, including painters, sculptors, architects, writers and critics who challenged the modernist current prevailing at the time and also what people traditionally considered as fine arts. All of its members, which included Paolozzi, Hamilton and Alloway, were motivated by an interest in the urban culture of mass production as films, pop music, publicity, etc. At the first meeting of the group, Paolozzi gave a speech using a series of collages called Bunk!, which included several popular objects of American culture as advertising, characters from comics, magazine covers and other graphic materials of mass production. After this presentation, the Group continued focusing on the popular culture of the United States. They presented for the first time this art in the exhibition "This is Tomorrow" at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1956. In 1961, Pop Art was introduced to the public with works by artists such as David Hockney, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips.
As for the Pop Art of United States, began at the end of the 1950s, and had a large force in the 1960's, while it was heavily criticized because of the importance which had on every aspect of artistic, abstract expressionism. American Pop Art adopted many elements of modern art and had a very sophisticated level. It differed of British Pop Art by being much more aggressive and with greater strength, while the British are more focused on the sentimental and humorous. Very helpful was the fact that this style of art was purely American, that the country was well accepted due to constant competition which existed with all European. In 1965, held a major exhibition in the center of art in Milwaukee, called "The Pop Art and the tradition American". Highlighted artists as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, as forerunners of the movement, and others like Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Roy Rosenquist and Tom Weselman, among others.
The artists of Pop Art were characterized by paint in figurative language, subjects taken from the consumer society, subjects and objects that most interested people, showing those images in an art form. He used images that used to be considered unworthy for art as advertising, posters, magazines, newspapers, cartons of drinks such as coca-cola, packages of cigarettes, images of cinema or television, etc.
An example of clear and very representative of Pop Art is the artist Andy Warhol, who painted works considered masterpieces from photographs. The best known are "Marilyn Monroe", "Elvis Presley" and "200 cans of soup Campbell's", among others. Other big representative was Roy Lichtenstein, which focused on making art inspired by the comic, with lots of color and humor. Indeed, it is recognized for having made the comic, an art. Include works like "The Kiss", "Crack" and others.
Translated for educational purposes.
