Pop Art

 The Aims, Philosophy and Methods of Pop Art
No international art movement that lasts for more than 15 years and encompasses all known art
types, genres and types of media, as well as entirely new forms, can be summed up in a few
sentences. Even so, no understanding of Pop-art is possible without taking into account the
following concepts which help to characterize its core.
 Instant Meaning
The basic idea behind Pop-art was to create a form of art with instant meaning. This was in sharp
contrast to the super-intellectualism of Abstract Expressionism with its esoteric canvases so
beloved by arts professionals. To achieve their goal of instant meaning, Pop artists experimented
with new commercial processes, like acrylic painting, collage on canvas using materials not
normally associated with painting, and silkscreen printing. In addition, the imagery and colour
schemes for most Pop-art painting and sculpture was taken from high-profile and easily
recognizable consumerist or media sources such as: consumer goods, advertising graphics,
magazines, television, film, cartoons and comic books. People and objects were presented in
bright, often highly-contrasting colours, while compositions were typically very simple and visually
appealing to the general public.
 Art Can be Made From Anything
Up until the 20th century, traditional fine art painting was normally done in oils: sculpture in
bronze, stone or wood. Furthermore, subjects were typically those deemed worthy of aesthetic
treatment: the human nude, the human face, the classic landscape, genre-scene or still life. Even
Cubism, despite its revolutionary nature, tended to observe many of these artistic conventions.
Then came the First World War and the anti-art movement known as Dada. This movement
initiated the idea that art can be created from all sorts of stuff, including the most banal everyday
scraps of material. Pop-artists maintained and developed this idea. They presented the modern
world of popular culture with whatever materials they though appropriate, no matter how low-
brow or trivial.
 The Idea is More Important Than the Work of Art Itself
Also, up until Dada, the essential feature of traditional fine art was the work itself - the painting,
sculpture, etching, carving or whatever. Without a "work of art", there was nothing. All attention
was therefore focused on the quality of the finished product, and the skills required to produce it.
Dada rebelled against this by celebrating the "idea behind the artwork" rather than the work itself.
Many Pop-artists continued this tradition of Conceptual Art. They placed more importance on the
impact of the work, and less importance on the making of it. Like the use of low-brow materials,
this emphasis on a work's concept and impact was interpreted as an attempt to debunk the
gravitas of the art world. This was partly true: some Pop artists did share the anti-art and anti-
aesthetic credo of earlier Dadaists. However, mainstream Pop was more positive and more
concerned to create new forms of expression, using new methods and new pictorial imagery, than
to denigrate tradition. Indeed, many Pop-artists saw themselves as contributing to, rather than
junking, fine art.
 A More Inclusive and More Relevant Style of Art
No matter how exquisitely conceived and painted, and how well received by influential art critics
like Clement Greenberg (1909-94), Harold Rosenberg (1906-78) and others, Mark Rothko's
monumental works of Abstract Expressionism were largely unknown to the American (or British)
public at large. In contrast, almost everyone recognized Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and numerous
other celebrities, as well as the popular foods and other branded products brands that rapidly
became the staple subject of Pop-art. Thus from a very early stage, Pop-art declared its intention
to reject the elitist character of traditional or high-brow art in favour of populist pictures of well-
known subjects.
For most people in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a trip to an art museum entailed a tedious
trawl past rows of obscure paintings, most of which were neither understandable nor entertaining.
Typically, most famous works (and the artists who created them) could not be appreciated simply
by viewing them, but required close study of a museum guidebook. Pop art was instrumental in
opening up the world of painting and sculpture to ordinary people who, perhaps for the first time
in their lives, could instantly recognize and appreciate the exhibit in front of them. They might not
like it, but they were far less likely to feel intimidated by an everyday image they could relate to. In
this sense, Pop-art made museums and galleries more relevant to the general public.
 Holding the Mirror Up to Society
Unlike Dada, whose entirely negative aim was to subvert and undermine the values of a bourgeois
establishment which they blamed for the carnage of World War I, Pop-art sought to reflect the
social values and environment from which it sprang. Thus they focused on the preoccupations
shared by most American consumers: food, cars and romance. Typically, this was achieved using
brash, or satirical, imagery with strong visual impact. And if they were criticized for concerning
themselves with such subject matter, they could simply say they were simply (in Shakespeare's
words) "holding the mirror up to nature", or in their case "modern society". If nothing else, Pop-
art was "the" post-war expression of a world wholly preoccupied the pursuit of materialism.
 Postmodernist Tendencies
Pop-art began in painterly fashion, distinguished mainly by its new range of populist subjects
which it hoped would convey a more relevant and up-to-date reality. Thereafter, it gradually
became more and more concerned, not with depicting reality (or nature), but with impact,
medium and style. Such a trend, which almost always leads to a blurring of the line between art
and demonstration - between something of beauty and mere entertainment - is the hallmark of
postmodernist art. For this reason, Pop-art may be considered the first movement to progress
beyond modernism into the contemporary art era. In effect, Pop artists of the 1960s blazed a trail
for Photorealism and later Britart and other similar contemporary styles that emerged in the
decades that followed. They also paved the way for postmodernist building designs, which
rehumanized American architecture significantly.
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/pop-art.htm

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 The Aims, Philosophy and Methods of Pop Art

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