pop art essay conclusion

Summary of Pop Art

Pop Art's refreshing reintroduction of identifiable imagery, drawn from media and popular culture, was a major shift for the direction of modernism. With roots in Neo-Dada and other movements that questioned the very definition of “art” itself, Pop was birthed in the United Kingdom in the 1950s amidst a postwar socio-political climate where artists turned toward celebrating commonplace objects and elevating the everyday to the level of fine art. American artists Andy Warhol , Roy Lichtenstein , James Rosenquist and others would soon follow suit to become the most famous champions of the movement in their own rejection of traditional historic artistic subject matter in lieu of contemporary society’s ever-present infiltration of mass manufactured products and images that dominated the visual realm. Perhaps owing to the incorporation of commercial images, Pop Art has become one of the most recognizable styles of modern art.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• By creating paintings or sculptures of mass culture objects and media stars, the Pop Art movement aimed to blur the boundaries between "high" art and "low" culture. The concept that there is no hierarchy of culture and that art may borrow from any source has been one of the most influential characteristics of Pop Art.
• It could be argued that the Abstract Expressionists searched for trauma in the soul, while Pop artists searched for traces of the same trauma in the mediated world of advertising, cartoons, and popular imagery at large. But it is perhaps more precise to say that Pop artists were the first to recognize that there is no unmediated access to anything, be it the soul, the natural world, or the built environment. Pop artists believed everything is inter-connected, and therefore sought to make those connections literal in their artwork.
• Although Pop Art encompasses a wide variety of work with very different attitudes and postures, much of it is somewhat emotionally removed. In contrast to the "hot" expression of the gestural abstraction that preceded it, Pop Art is generally "coolly" ambivalent. Whether this suggests an acceptance of the popular world or a shocked withdrawal, has been the subject of much debate.
• Pop artists seemingly embraced the post-World War II manufacturing and media boom. Some critics have cited the Pop Art choice of imagery as an enthusiastic endorsement of the capitalist market and the goods it circulated, while others have noted an element of cultural critique in the Pop artists' elevation of the everyday to high art: tying the commodity status of the goods represented to the status of the art object itself, emphasizing art's place as, at base, a commodity.
• Some of the most famous Pop artists began their careers in commercial art: Andy Warhol was a highly successful magazine illustrator and graphic designer; Ed Ruscha was also a graphic designer, and James Rosenquist started his career as a billboard painter. Their background in the commercial art world trained them in the visual vocabulary of mass culture as well as the techniques to seamlessly merge the realms of high art and popular culture.

Key Artists

Overview of Pop Art

From early innovators in London to later deconstruction of American imagery by the likes of Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rosenquist - the Pop Art movement became one of the most thought-after of artistic directions.

Artworks and Artists of Pop Art

I Was a Rich Man's Plaything

Artist: Eduardo Paolozzi

Paolozzi, a Scottish sculptor and artist, was a key member of the British post-war avant-garde . His collage I Was a Rich Man's Plaything proved an important foundational work for the Pop Art movement, combining pop culture documents like a pulp fiction novel cover, a Coca-Cola advertisement, and a military recruitment advertisement. The work exemplifies the slightly darker tone of British Pop Art, which reflected more upon the gap between the glamour and affluence present in American popular culture and the economic and political hardship of British reality. As a member of the loosely associated Independent Group, Paolozzi emphasized the impact of technology and mass culture on high art. His use of collage demonstrates the influence of Surrealist and Dadaist photomontage, which Paolozzi implemented to recreate the barrage of mass media images experienced in everyday life.

Collage - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?

Artist: Richard Hamilton

Hamilton's collage was a seminal piece for the evolution of Pop Art and is often cited as the very first work of the movement. Created for the exhibition This is Tomorrow at London's Whitechapel Gallery in 1956, Hamilton's image was used both in the catalogue for the exhibition and on posters advertising it. The collage presents viewers with an updated Adam and Eve (a body-builder and a burlesque dancer) surrounded by all the conveniences modern life provided, including a vacuum cleaner, canned ham, and a television. Constructed using a variety of cutouts from magazine advertisements, Hamilton created a domestic interior scene that both lauded consumerism and critiqued the decadence that was emblematic of the American post-war economic boom years.

Collage - Kunsthalle Tubingen, Germany

President Elect

Artist: James Rosenquist

Like many Pop artists, Rosenquist was fascinated by the popularization of political and cultural figures in mass media. In his painting President Elect , the artist depicts John F. Kennedy's face amidst an amalgamation of consumer items, including a yellow Chevrolet and a piece of cake. Rosenquist created a collage with the three elements cut from their original mass media context, and then photo-realistically recreated them on a monumental scale. As Rosenquist explains, "The face was from Kennedy's campaign poster. I was very interested at that time in people who advertised themselves. Why did they put up an advertisement of themselves? So that was his face. And his promise was half a Chevrolet and a piece of stale cake." The large-scale work exemplifies Rosenquist's technique of combining discrete images through techniques of blending, interlocking, and juxtaposition, as well as his skill at including political and social commentary using popular imagery.

Oil on masonite - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Pastry Case, I

Artist: Claes Oldenburg

Oldenburg is known as one of the few American Pop Art sculptors, notorious for his playfully absurd creations of food and inanimate objects. The collection of works in Pastry Case, I were originally displayed in the artist's famous 1961 installation titled The Store , located on New York's Lower East Side. For the project, Oldenburg created plaster sculptural objects including a strawberry shortcake and a candied apple. In addition to replicating consumer items, Oldenburg organized his installation like a typical variety shop and sold his items at low prices, commenting on the interrelation between art objects and commodities. Although sold as if they were mass-produced, the sculptures in The Store were carefully hand-built and the lavish, expressive brushstrokes that cover the items in Pastry Case, I seem to mock the seriousness of Abstract Expressionism, a common theme in Pop Art. Oldenburg combines the evocative expressionist gesture with the commodity item in a highly ironic environment.

Painted plaster sculptures on ceramic plates, metal platter and cups in glass-and-metal case - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Drowning Girl

Artist: Roy Lichtenstein

In the early 1960s, Lichtenstein gained renown as a leading Pop artist for paintings sourced from the popular comics. Although artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns had previously integrated popular imagery into their works, no one hitherto had focused on cartoon imagery as exclusively as Lichtenstein. His work, along with that of Andy Warhol, heralded the beginning of the Pop Art movement, and, essentially, the end of Abstract Expressionism as the dominant style. Lichtenstein did not simply copy comic pages directly, he employed a complex technique that involved cropping images to create entirely new, dramatic compositions, as in Drowning Girl , whose source image included the woman's boyfriend standing on a boat above her. Lichtenstein also condensed the text of the comic book panels, locating language as another, crucial visual element; re-appropriating this emblematic aspect of commercial art for his paintings further challenged existing views about definitions of "high" art. As with the rest of Pop Art, it is often unclear whether Lichtenstein is applauding the comic book image, and the general cultural sphere to which it belongs, or critiquing it, leaving interpretation up to the viewer. But in Drowning Girl , the ridicule of the woman's situation (as is made clear by her ridiculous statement) is evident.

Oil on canvas - Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Campbell's Soup I

Artist: Andy Warhol

Warhol's iconic series of Campbell's Soup Cans paintings were never meant to be celebrated for their form or compositional style, like that of the abstractionists. What made these works significant was Warhol's co-opting of universally recognizable imagery, such as a Campbell's soup can, Mickey Mouse, or the face of Marilyn Monroe, and depicting it as a mass-produced item, but within a fine art context. In that sense, Warhol wasn't just emphasizing popular imagery, but rather providing commentary on how people have come to perceive these things in modern times: as commodities to be bought and sold, identifiable as such with one glance. This early series was hand-painted, but Warhol switched to screenprinting shortly afterwards, favoring the mechanical technique for his mass culture imagery. 100 canvases of Campbell's soup cans made up his first solo exhibition at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, and put Warhol on the art world map almost immediately, forever changing the face and content of modern art.

Screenprint - Fair Use

Artist: Sigmar Polke

After Polke co-founded Capitalist Realism in 1963 in Düsseldorf, Germany, with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Leug, he began to create paintings of popular culture, evoking both genuine nostalgia for the images and mild cynicism about the state of the German economy. He began simulating the dot patterns of commercial four-color printing (Raster dots) around the same time as Lichtenstein started replicating Ben-Day dots on his canvases. In Bunnies , Polke uses an image from the Playboy Club depicting four of their "bunnies" in costume. By recreating the Raster dot printing technique in this painting, Polke disrupts the mass-marketing of sexual appeal, because the closer the viewer gets to the work, the less they see. Bunnies and the rest of Polke's Raster dot paintings, do not invite a deep, personal identification with the image but rather the images become allegories for the self as it lost amidst the flood of commecial imagery. The dissonance between the inviting sexuality of the appropriated image of the Playboy bunnies and the distancing effect of the Raster dots echoes the interplay of feelings and emotions felt by the artist, both yearning for the mass-culture advertised life and repelled by it at the same time. Polke's vision of popular culture is far more critical than any of the New York artists, and is rooted in the skeptical attitude held by the Capitalist Realists. Rather than the "cool" detachment of New York, Polke cleverly critiques popular culture and how it affects the individual using the same mass-market image-making techniques.

Oil on cavas - Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA

Standard Station

Artist: Ed Ruscha

The printmaker, painter, and photographer Ed Ruscha was an important proponent of West Coast Pop Art that blended the imagery of Hollywood with colorful renderings of commercial culture and the landscape of the southwest. The gasoline station is one of Ruscha's most iconic motifs, appearing repeatedly in his book Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), a documentation of deadpan photographs from a road trip through the American Southwestern countryside. In Standard Station , the artist transforms the banal image of the gasoline station into an emblematic symbol of American consumer culture. Here, through the medium of screenprinting, Ruscha flattens the perspective into a single plane to create an image that evokes the aesthetic of commercial advertising. The work also demonstrates Ruscha's early experiments with language and textual interplay, which would be a principal concern in much of his later, more conceptually oriented work.

Screenprint - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

A Bigger Splash

Artist: David Hockney

This large canvas, measuring approximately 94 by 94 inches, was derived from a photograph of a swimming pool Hockney had seen in a pool manual. Hockney was intrigued by the idea that a painting might recapture a fleeting event frozen in a photograph: “I loved the idea of painting this thing that lasts for two seconds: it takes me two weeks to paint this event that lasts for two seconds.” The dynamism of the splash contrasts strongly with the static and rigid geometry of the house, the pool edge, the palm trees and the striking yellow diving board, all carefully arranged in a grid containing the splash. This gives the painting a disjointed effect that is absolutely intentional, one of the hallmarks of Hockney’s style. The effect of stylization and artificiality draws on the aesthetic vocabulary of Pop Art.

Acrylic on canvas - Collection of the Tate, United Kingdom

Beginnings of Pop Art

Great britain: the independent group.

In 1952, a gathering of artists in London calling themselves the Independent Group began meeting regularly to discuss topics such as mass culture's place in fine art, the found object, and science and technology. Members included Eduardo Paolozzi , Richard Hamilton , architects Alison and Peter Smithson , and critics Lawrence Alloway and Reyner Banham. Britain in the early 1950s was still emerging from the austerity of the post-war years, and its citizens were ambivalent about American popular culture. While the group was suspicious of its commercial character, they were enthusiastic about the rich world pop culture seemed to promise for the future. The imagery they discussed at length included that found in Western movies, science fiction, comic books, billboards, automobile design, and rock and roll music.

The actual term "Pop Art" has several possible origins: the first use of the term in writing has been attributed to both Lawrence Alloway and Alison and Peter Smithson, and alternately to Richard Hamilton, who defined Pop in a letter, while the first artwork to incorporate the word "Pop" was produced by Paolozzi. His collage I Was a Rich Man's Plaything (1947) contained cut-up images of a pinup girl, Coca-Cola logo, cherry pie, World War II bomber, and a man's hand holding a pistol, out of which burst the world "POP!" in a puffy white cloud.

New York City: The Emergence of Neo-Dada

By the mid 1950s, the artists working in New York City faced a critical juncture in modern art: follow the Abstract Expressionists or rebel against the strict formalism advocated by many schools of modernism. By this time, Jasper Johns was already troubling conventions with abstract paintings that included references to: "things the mind already knows" - targets, flags, handprints, letters, and numbers. Meanwhile, Robert Rauschenberg's "combines" incorporated found objects and images, with more traditional materials like oil paint. Similarly, Allan Kaprow's "Happenings" and the Fluxus movements chose to incorporate aspects from the surrounding world into their art. These artists, along with others, later became grouped in the movement known as Neo-Dada . The now classic New York Pop Art of Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol emerged in the 1960 in the footsteps of the Neo-Dadaists.

Pop Art: Concepts, Styles, and Trends

Once the transition from the found-object constructions of the Neo-Dada artists to the Pop movement was complete, there was widespread interest on the part of artists in the incorporation of popular culture into their work. Although artists in the Independent Group in London initiated the use of "pop" in reference to art, American artists soon followed suit and incorporated popular culture into their artwork as well. Although the individual styles vary widely, all of the artists maintain a commonality in their choice of popular culture imagery as their fundamental subject. Shortly after American Pop Art arrived on the art world scene, mainland European variants developed in the Capitalist Realist movement in Germany and the Nouveau Réalisme movement in France.

Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, and the Tabular Image

The Pop Art collages of Paolozzi and Hamilton convey the mixed feelings Europeans maintained toward American popular culture; both exalting the mass-produced objects and images while also criticizing the excess. In his collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? (1956), Hamilton combined images from various mass media sources, carefully selecting each image and composing the disparate elements of popular imagery into one coherent survey of post-war consumer culture. The members of the Independent Group were the first artists to present mass media imagery, acknowledging the challenges to traditional art categories occurring in America and Britain after 1945.

Roy Lichtenstein and Pulp Culture

Lichtenstein proved that he could fulfill demands for a "great" composition even though his subject matter derived from comic books. In addition to using the imagery from these mass-produced picture books, Lichtenstein appropriated the techniques used to create the images in comic books to create his paintings. He not only adopted the same bright colors and clear outlines as popular art, his most innovative contribution was his use of Ben-Day dots: small dots used to render color in mass-manufactured comics. Focusing on a single panel within a comic strip, Lichtenstein's canvases are not an exact facsimile, but are rather the artist's creative re-imaging of the composition in which elements may have been added or eliminated, scale could shift, and text might be edited. By hand-painting the usually machine-generated dots, and recreating comic book scenes, Lichtenstein blurred the distinction between mass reproduction and high art.

James Rosenquist and the Monumental Image

Rosenquist also directly appropriated images from popular culture for his paintings. However, rather than produce rote copies, Rosenquist exerted creative control through his surrealistic juxtapositions of products and celebrities, often inserting political messages. As part of his method, Rosenquist collaged magazine clippings from advertisements and photo spreads, and then used the results as studies for his final painting. Rosenquist's training in billboard painting transitioned perfectly into his realistic renderings of those collages expanded onto a monumental scale. With works often much larger and wider than 20 feet, Rosenquist imbued the mundane with the same status previously reserved for high, sometimes royal, art subjects.

Andy Warhol and Repetition

Andy Warhol is most famous for his vividly colored portraits of celebrities, but his subject matter has varied widely throughout his career. The common theme amidst the different subjects is their inspiration in mass consumer culture. His earliest works depict objects like Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell's soup cans, reproduced ad infinitum, as if the gallery wall were a shelf in a supermarket. Warhol transitioned from hand painting to screenprinting to further facilitate the large-scale replication of pop images. Warhol's insistence on mechanical reproduction rejected notions of artistic authenticity and genius. Instead, he acknowledged the commodification of art, proving that paintings were no different from cans of Campbell's soup; both have material worth and could be bought and sold like consumer goods. He further equated the mass-produced status of consumer goods with that of celebrities in portraits like Marilyn Diptych (1962).

Claes Oldenburg and Pop Sculpture

Renowned for his monumental public sculptures of everyday objects and his "soft" sculptures, Claes Oldenburg began his career on a much smaller scale. In 1961 he rented a storefront in New York City for a month where he installed and sold his wire and plaster sculptures of mundane objects, ranging from pastries to men's and women's undergarments, in an installation he dubbed The Store . Oldenburg charged a nominal fee for each piece, which underscored his commentary on the role of art as a commodity. He began his soft sculptures shortly after The Store , constructing large, everyday objects, like a slice of cake, an ice cream cone, or a mixer, out of fabric and stuffing so the end result collapses in on itself like a deflating balloon. Oldenburg would continue to focus on commonplace objects throughout his career, moving from soft sculptures to grand public art, like the 45-foot-high Clothespin (1974) in downtown Philadelphia. Regardless of the scale, Oldenburg's work always maintains a playful attitude toward re-creating mundane things in an unconventional way in order to upend viewer's expectations.

Los Angeles Pop

As opposed to New York City, the art world of Los Angeles was much less rigid, lacking the established galleries, critics, and hierarchies of the east coast; this openness is reflected in the styles of the artists who lived and worked there. The first museum survey of Pop Art, New Painting of Common Objects , was held at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1962, and showcased Warhol and Lichtenstein as well as many artists living in Los Angeles including Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, Phillip Hefferton, Wayne Thiebaud, and Robert Dowd. Other Los Angeles artists, like Billy Al Bengston, incorporated a different kind of aesthetic into their version of Pop, utilizing new materials such as automobile paint and referencing surfing and motorcycles in works that make the familiar strange through new and unexpected combinations of images and media. By shifting the focus away from specific consumer goods, these artists allowed Pop Art to move beyond replication to incorporate experience and evoke a particular feeling, attitude, or idea, while also pushing the boundaries between high art and popular culture.

Ed Ruscha and Signage

On the roster at Ferus Gallery, Ed Ruscha was one of the pivotal artists of Los Angeles Pop who worked in a variety of media, with the majority of these typically printed or painted. Emphasizing the omnipresence of signage in Los Angeles, Ruscha used words and phrases as subjects in his earliest Pop Art paintings. His first reference to popular culture was the painting Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962), where he appropriated the 20 th Century Fox logo in a simplified composition with the hard edges and clear palette of a cartoon, echoing the similar billboards. His subsequent paintings of words further blurred the lines between advertising signage, painting, and abstraction, undermining the divisions between the aesthetic world and the commercial realm, some even incorporating three-dimensional objects like pencils and comic books on the canvases. Ruscha's work presages the Conceptual art of the later 1960s, driven by the idea behind the artwork rather than the specific image. Ruscha's exploration of a variety of commonplace images and themes went beyond merely reproducing them, but to examining the interchangeability of image, text, place, and experience.

Capitalist Realism in Germany

In Germany, the counterpart to the American Pop Art movement was Capitalist Realism, a movement that focused on subjects taken from commodity culture and utilized an aesthetic based in the mass media. The group was founded by Sigmar Polke in 1963 and included artists Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg as its central members. The Capitalist Realists sought to expose the consumerism and superficiality of contemporary capitalist society by using the imagery and aesthetic of popular art and advertising within their work. Polke explored the creative possibilities of mechanical reproduction and Lueg examined pop culture imagery, while Richter dissected the photographic medium.

Nouveau Réalisme in France

In France, aspects of Pop Art were present in Nouveau Réalisme, a movement launched by the critic Pierre Restany in 1960, with the drafting of the "Constitutive Declaration of New Realism," that proclaimed, "Nouveau Réalisme - new ways of perceiving the real." The declaration was signed in Yves Klein's workshop by nine artists who were united in their direct appropriation of mass culture, or in Restany's words, "poetic recycling of urban, industrial, and advertising reality." This principle is evident in the work of Villeglé, whose technique of " décollage " involved cutting through layers of posters to create a new image. While the movement echoed the American Pop artists' concerns with commercial culture, many of the Nouveau Réalistes were more concerned with objects than with painting, as is the case with Spoerri , whose "snare-pictures" used food, cutlery, and tabletops as artistic media. Other key proponents of the movement included Yves Klein , Jean Tinguely , Arman , François Dufrêne , Raymond Hains , Niki de Saint Phalle , and Christo and Jean-Claude .

Later Developments - After Pop Art

Pop Art would continue to influence artists in later decades, with artists like Warhol maintaining a larger-than-life presence within the New York art world into the 1980s. Pop fell out of favor during the 1970s as the art world shifted focus from art objects to installations, performances, and other less tangible art forms. However, with the revival of painting at the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s, the art object came back into favor once again, and popular culture provided subject matter that was easy for viewers to identify and understand. One of the leading figures of the Neo-Pop movement was Jeff Koons , whose appropriation of pop culture icons such as Michael Jackson and mass-produced objects like Hoover vacuum cleaners further pushed the boundaries of high art. In Japan, the work of Takashi Murakami has been cited as a more recent example of Neo-Pop, due to his use of popular anime imagery in his Superflat style and his successful partnering with fashion labels like Louis Vuitton. Such artists continue to break down the barrier between high and low art forms, while reevaluating the role of art as a commodity in and of itself.

Useful Resources on Pop Art

• Pop Go the Women The Other Story of Pop Art British historian Alistair Sooke tracks down the forgotten women artists of pop, finding their art and their stories ripe for rediscovery. Artists include Pauline Boty, Marisol, Rosalyn Drexler, Idelle Weber, Letty Lou Eisenhauer, and Jann Haworth

• Pop Art: A Critical History Our Pick By Steven Henry Madoff
• Pop Our Pick By Mark Francis, Hal Foster
• Pop Art By Tilman Osterwold
• Pop Art By Honnef Klaus, Uta Grosenick
• Tate Movements in Modern Art: Pop Art By David McCarthy
• Whaam! The Art and Life of Roy Lichtenstein By Susan Goldman Rubin
• Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter By Susan Goldman Rubin
• James Rosenquist: Pop Art, Politics, and History in the 1960s By Michael Lobel
• Pop Art International: Far Beyond Warhol and Lichtenstein Our Pick A look into the varying international aesthetics of the Pop Art movement / By Holland Cotter / The New York Times / February 25, 2016
• Where Are the Great Women Pop Artists? Our Pick By Kim Levin / ARTnews Magazine / November 1, 2010
• Reconfiguring Pop Our Pick By Saul Ostrow / Art in American Magazine / September 1, 2010
• TOP OF THE POPS - Did Andy Warhol change everything? Our Pick An extensive look (and investigation) into the life of Andy Warhol, through the context of his personal life and art making practices / By Louis Menand / The New Yorker / January 11, 2010
• The Pop Art Era By Deborah Solomon / The New York Times / December 8, 2009
• Top Ten ARTnews Stories: The First Word on Pop ARTnews Magazine / November 1, 2007
• Pop Art Was Part French: Mais Oui! Just Ask Them By Alan Riding / The New York Times / April 15, 2001
• The Arts and the Mass Media Our Pick By Lawrence Alloway / Architectural Design & Construction / February 1958
• James Rosenquist, Pop Art Pioneer, Dies at 83 A snapshot of the life, work and inspiration for a Pop Art pioneer / By Ken Johnson / The New York Times / April 1, 2017
• The Impact of Pop Art on the World of Fashion Our Pick WideWalls.com / A look at the ways in which Pop Art has become a commercialized entity in the Fashion Industry
• Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968 Brooklyn Museum 2010 Exhibition
• Pop Art IPhone App that makes portraits look like Andy Warhol's silkscreens

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Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf

Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

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Art Comparative Analysis Essay: Exploring the Pop Art Style

Art is a powerful medium of expression that has evolved through centuries, reflecting the changing landscapes of culture, society, and individual creativity. One fascinating aspect of art is the ability to analyze and compare different styles, periods, or movements. In this comparative analysis art essay, we will delve into the vibrant world of Pop Art, examining its key characteristics, artists, and its influence on the art world.

List of Essays

Understanding comparative analysis in art essays, the emergence of pop art, key characteristics of pop art, key artists in pop art, comparative analysis of pop art, influence of pop art on contemporary art.

Before diving into the intricacies of Pop Art, let's briefly discuss what a comparative analysis art essay entails. Such essays require a systematic examination and comparison of two or more artworks or artistic movements. This analysis should uncover similarities, differences, and overarching themes, shedding light on the broader context in which these works or movements exist. Comparative analysis essays are valuable tools for art historians, students, and art enthusiasts, as they offer a deeper understanding of artistic evolution.

Pop Art, short for "popular art," emerged in the mid-20th century as a reaction to the dominant Abstract Expressionism movement. It gained prominence in the 1950s and reached its zenith in the 1960s. This art style was characterized by a celebration of popular culture, consumerism, and everyday objects. Pop Art challenged the traditional notions of high art by incorporating elements from mass media, advertising, and consumer products into its works.

1. Repetition and Multiplicity

One of the defining features of Pop Art is the repetition of familiar images and objects. Artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein frequently used iconic symbols, like Campbell's Soup cans or comic book panels, in their works. This repetition served to emphasize the ubiquity of consumer culture.

2. Vibrant Colors

Pop Art embraced bold and vibrant colors, often using the primary color palette. The vivid hues in Pop Art pieces, such as Warhol's Marilyn Monroe portraits, added a sense of immediacy and accessibility, drawing viewers in.

3. Commercial Aesthetics

Artists sought to mimic the slick and polished appearance of commercial art and advertising. This aesthetic challenged the notion that fine art should be separate from popular culture.

4. Irony and Critique

While Pop Art celebrated consumerism, it also carried an underlying critique of society's obsession with consumption and celebrity. This juxtaposition of celebration and critique added depth to the style.

1. Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol is arguably the most iconic figure in the Pop Art movement. His "Campbell's Soup Cans" and colorful portraits of Marilyn Monroe are some of the most recognized artworks in the world. Warhol's work blurred the line between fine art and mass production, sparking critical discussions about the nature of art itself.

2. Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein gained fame for his comic book-inspired artworks, using Ben-Day dots and bold outlines to create a visually striking effect. His "Whaam!" and "Drowning Girl" are among his most celebrated pieces, showcasing the fusion of high and low culture.

3. Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg's sculptures of oversized everyday objects, such as typewriters and hamburgers, were a testament to the playful and ironic nature of Pop Art. His work challenged the traditional notion of sculpture and expanded the possibilities of art.

Now that we've explored the fundamentals of Pop Art, let's conduct a comparative analysis of two renowned Pop Art pieces: Andy Warhol's "Marilyn Diptych" and Roy Lichtenstein's "Drowning Girl."

Andy Warhol's "Marilyn Diptych"

"Marilyn Diptych" is a prime example of Andy Warhol's fascination with celebrity culture. This artwork features multiple repetitions of Marilyn Monroe's face, creating a mesmerizing pattern. The left side of the diptych shows a vibrant, colorful Marilyn, while the right side gradually fades into grayscale, symbolizing Monroe's tragic demise.

The repetition in "Marilyn Diptych" echoes the mass production of celebrity images in the media. By presenting Marilyn's image in various states, from vibrant to fading, Warhol highlights the ephemeral nature of fame.

Roy Lichtenstein's "Drowning Girl"

In contrast, Roy Lichtenstein's "Drowning Girl" draws inspiration from comic book panels. The artwork depicts a distressed woman in a stylized, emotionally exaggerated manner. The use of Ben-Day dots and bold outlines mimics the mechanical printing process used in comic books.

The comparative analysis of these two works reveals the diversity within the Pop Art movement. While Warhol's piece is more contemplative and reflective, Lichtenstein's work is dynamic and emotive. Both, however, employ the signature elements of Pop Art: repetition, vibrant colors, and a nod to popular culture.

Pop Art's impact on contemporary art is profound and enduring. Its bold use of imagery, consumer culture critique, and fusion of high and low culture continue to inspire artists today. Contemporary artists like Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst have drawn from the legacy of Pop Art in their own creations, exploring themes of mass production and consumerism.

In this comparative analysis art essay, we've explored the fascinating world of Pop Art. We've examined its key characteristics, delved into the works of iconic artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and conducted a comparative analysis of "Marilyn Diptych" and "Drowning Girl." Pop Art's influence on contemporary art remains undeniable, serving as a testament to its enduring relevance and impact on the art world.

In conclusion, Pop Art's celebration and critique of consumer culture continue to resonate with audiences today, making it a vital chapter in the ever-evolving story of art. The comparative analysis of artworks within this movement allows us to appreciate the diversity and depth of this influential style, proving that art is indeed a reflection of society and a lens through which we can examine our world.

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A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POP ART MOVEMENT AND ITS ARTISTIC LEGACY

2019, IJCIRAS

'The artistic movements of pop art were defined as popular, young, witty, sexy, and glamorous. (a quote from the website of original style , an online tile shop)' The appearance of pop art in Britain and the United States in the mid 1950 and early 1960 respectively. Taking up the ideas of dada an early 20 th century art movement, that used irony and found objects in the service of cultural critique-the pop artists expanded the definition of the art object by exploring the image world of popular culture and the concomitant growth of mass reproduction. A number of the artists who emerged , or more appropriately burst upon the art world. Particularly in new York and los angels in the 1 st years of the 1960's were responding to society's new commercialism. indeed those who came to be identified as pop artists embraced consumerism as a fitting subject of their art. expression and gesture hallmarks of abstract expressionism which preceded pop in the late 1940's and early 1950's were replaced with cool, detached, mechanical illustrations of common objects. Often based on appropriated advertising images. Pop art was preparing a new kind of subjectivity and art language. pop artists turned outward for aesthetic stimuli. Pop art was a significant sociological phenomenon. In turn, the consumer industry itself adopted it as an antidote to the rigidity of high art. Pop came to encompass the field of music, consumer design, and fashion , correspondent to an entire way of life among young people in the 1960's.

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One of the biggest art movements of the 20th Century, Pop Art has been shaped by the demands of consumer society. In contrast to the elitist conception of art, postmodernism used popular images and became the art of consumer society. Employing images from the popular culture, it sought to elevate its objects to highbrow clientele. In this context, some saw Pop Art as a field whereby popular culture, which essentially belonged to common people, was utilised by the dominant classes to penetrate into the emotions and thoughts of people, eventually aiming to fortify their hegemony. Pop Art was defined as kitsch, decadent or banal for using the popular images from mass culture. Debates over popular culture versus high culture have started to set the tune in art theory.

Justyna Stępień

Ayşe Sönmez

If we want to talk about pop art, we can say that pop art is related to popular culture. It starts post war (WWII) and it is affected by consumerism of 1950s and 1960s. During that time, globalization is the most important thing among consumer societies. All of people listen Elvis Presley and watch Marilyn Monroe. Also, they drink Coca-Cola. For example; both Elizabeth Taylor drinks Coca-Cola and ordinary person drinks it. Moreover, they eat same soup brand which is called ' Cambell's Chicken Noodle Soup' when their lunch time. At that time, pop art movement increases and lots of artists occur among various countries. They are using different styles and various techniques while they are producing art pieces. However, all of them are affected by one thing which is called 'popular culture'. Popular culture is produced by mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture. Pop art does not appear anywhere. It is based on political backround where it starts. Also, experimental European artists affect pop art artists in the way of their inspirations and styles. What are the political and artistic backround of pop art movement? The serious American artists face difficult situations during post war period. America enters cold war with Soviet Russia. At that time, psycoanalysis offers new world insight of people but Marxism is lost favour and Stalin has a lot of crimes. Because of these conditions, new art movement begins which name is 'Abstract Expressionism'. The artists of abstract expressionism represent their insight on art pieces. However, they are not interested in social virtue or social condition of America. Since, American policy supports and uses force for drawing these kinds of paintings. This policy argues that abstract expressionism is the proof of the living 'Free World' in America. Also, it is related to seem bigger than Soviet bureaucracy. When we look at the 1950s, consumerism spreads among citizens of America. American policy encourages for people to express their individuality with buying goods. This process triggers for rise of the modern capitalism and further developments in cultural industry. Regarding this issue, in 1955, the economist Victor Lebow states " Our enourmously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego

John A Walker

Reflections on my own responses to pop art since the 1950s and those of various other art critics and theorists. A contribution to reception history.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Sally Markowitz

Erdem Selvin

In this paper, I propose to discuss the reasons of emergence of Pop Art, its influences upon other artists and reflections on today’s art, what the impacts of it on people are and its importance in today’s life. Where it comes from, what the forces are behind it, is there any stylistic change in history of Pop, or, any different examples of form, what the main subjects are and the meanings of their contents are the main questions in my mind while I was writing this paper. Before I state the strict definitions of Pop art, I want to give place to its critiques. In this way, I intend to explain what the Pop art is not.

Journal for Art Market Studies

Titia Hulst

The emergence of American Pop art as a major avant-garde movement had a significant impact on the market for contemporary art and, with it, the perception of America’s newly achieved cultural superiority. A detailed examination of sales records of avant-garde galleries in New York reveals Pop’s appeal to collectors (especially businessmen), despite significant critical disdain, and links the formal qualities and subjects of Pop art to widely-held assumptions about modes of viewing and social class.

Paco Barragán , Max Ryynanen , Alistair Brown

This is an Artpulse Magazine Special Number dedicated to the High Art versus Pop Culture debate for which I have acted as Guest Editor. It contains the result of an International Survey among 130 art and culture professionals like Nicolas Bourriaud, Charles Esche, James Elkins, et al that I carried out and special articles and interviews commissioned by Domenico Quaranta, Max Ryynänen, Michele Robecchi, Javier Panera, Alistair Brown, Stephen Knudsen, Mieke Bal, Jozef Kovalcik and Jamie Hamilton Faris.

Robert Slifkin

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Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe , 1962, silkscreen on canvas, 211.4 x 144.7 cm ( Museum of Modern Art, New York )

Popular culture, “popular” art

At first glance, Pop art might seem to glorify popular culture by elevating soup cans, comic strips and hamburgers to the status of fine art on the walls of museums. But, then again, a second look may suggest a critique of the mass marketing practices and consumer culture that emerged in the United States after World War II. Andy Warhol’s Gold Marilyn Monroe  clearly reflects this inherent irony of Pop. The central image on a gold background evokes a religious tradition of painted icons, transforming the Hollywood starlet into a Byzantine Madonna that reflects our obsession with celebrity. Notably, Warhol’s spiritual reference was especially poignant given Monroe’s suicide a few months earlier. Like religious fanatics, the actress’s fans worshipped their idol; yet, Warhol’s sloppy silkscreening calls attention to the artifice of Marilyn’s glamorous façade and places her alongside other mass-marketed commodities like a can of soup or a box of Brillo pads.

Richard Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? , 1956, collage, 26 cm × 24.8 cm (Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen)

Genesis of Pop

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed , 1955, oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports, 191.1 x 80 x 20.3 cm ( The Museum of Modern Art, New York )

In this light, it’s not surprising that the term “Pop art” first emerged in Great Britain, which suffered great economic hardship after the war. In the late 1940s, artists of the “Independent Group,” first began to appropriate idealized images of the American lifestyle they found in popular magazines as part of their critique of British society.  Critic Lawrence Alloway and artist Richard Hamilton are usually credited with coining the term, possibly in the context of Hamilton’s famous collage Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?  Made to announce the Independent Group’s 1956 exhibition “This Is Tomorrow,” in London, the image prominently features a muscular semi-nude man, holding a phallically positioned Tootsie Pop.

Pop art’s origins, however, can be traced back even further.  In 1917, Marcel Duchamp asserted that any object—including his notorious example of a urinal —could be art, as long as the artist intended it as such. Artists of the 1950s built on this notion to challenge boundaries distinguishing art from real life, in disciplines of music and dance, as well as visual art. Robert Rauschenberg’s desire to “work in the gap between art and life,” for example, led him to incorporate such objects as bed pillows , tires, and even a stuffed goat in his “ combine paintings ” that merged features of painting and sculpture. Likewise, Claes Oldenberg created The Store , an installation in a vacant storefront where he sold crudely fashioned sculptures of brand-name consumer goods. These “Proto-pop” artists were, in part, reacting against the rigid critical structure and lofty philosophies surrounding Abstract Expressionism , the dominant art movement of the time; but their work also reflected the numerous social changes taking place around them.

Post-war consumer culture grabs hold (and never lets go)

c. 1950s advertisement for the American Gas Association

The years following World War II saw enormous growth in the American economy, which, combined with innovations in technology and the media, spawned a consumer culture with more leisure time and expendable income than ever before. The manufacturing industry that had expanded during the war now began to mass-produce everything from hairspray and washing machines to shiny new convertibles, which advertisers claimed all would bring ultimate joy to their owners. Significantly, the development of television, as well as changes in print advertising, placed new emphasis on graphic images and recognizable brand logos—something that we now take for granted in our visually saturated world.

It was in this artistic and cultural context that Pop artists developed their distinctive style of the early 1960s. Characterized by clearly rendered images of popular subject matter, it seemed to assault the standards of modern painting, which had embraced abstraction as a reflection of universal truths and individual expression.

Left: Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with a Ball , 1961, oil on canvas, 153 x 91.9 cm ( Museum of Modern Art, New York ); right: Detail of face showing Lichtenstein’s painted Ben-Day dots, Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with a Ball , 1961, oil on canvas, 153 x 91.9 cm ( Museum of Modern Art, New York, photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Irony and iron-ons

In contrast to the dripping paint and slashing brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism—and even of Proto-Pop art—Pop artists applied their paint to imitate the look of industrial printing techniques. This ironic approach is exemplified by Lichtenstein’s methodically painted Ben-Day dots, a mechanical process used to print pulp comics.

As the decade progressed, artists shifted away from painting towards the use of industrial techniques. Warhol began making silkscreens, before removing himself further from the process by having others do the actual printing in his studio, aptly named “The Factory.”  Similarly, Oldenburg abandoned his early installations and performances, to produce the large-scale sculptures of cake slices , lipsticks , and clothespins that he is best known for today.

Additional resources

Read a chapter in our textbook,  Reframing Art History —” Popular, Transient, Expendable: Print Culture and Propaganda in the 20th century .”

Pop art on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

[flickr_tags user_id=”82032880@N00″ tags=”PopIntro,”]

More Smarthistory images…

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Enough with Pop Art

• Article contents
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Giulia Smith, Enough with Pop Art, Oxford Art Journal , Volume 40, Issue 3, December 2017, Pages 505–510, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/kcx031

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The last three decades have witnessed a resurgence of interest—scholarly and curatorial—in the Independent Group (IG) and its associates, particularly in Britain and the United States. The two publications reviewed here are among the latest and most substantial interventions in the field. Neither seeks to rewrite (or even recapitulate, for that matter) the official history of the group, whose activities are conventionally placed between 1952 and 1955 at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), in London. Both make a point of moving beyond this limited framework, in order to offer new and more fruitful lines of enquiry. Lawrence Alloway: Critic and Curator ( LACC ) does so by taking a monographic approach, with nine thematic essays presenting fresh insights into the lifework and personal archive of a prominent figure in the group. The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain ( TAoB ) looks at a cultural trend—brutalism—that evolved within and beyond the context of the IG.

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Home — Essay Samples — Arts & Culture — Andy Warhol — Andy Warhol’s Use Of The Controversial Pop Art Style

Andy Warhol’s Use of The Controversial Pop Art Style

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Controversial Warhol

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82 Pop Art Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best pop art topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on pop art, 📌 simple & easy pop art essay titles, ❓ essay questions about pop art.

• American Pop Art Culture Review Pop art depicts the details of everyday life in which people derive most of their visual language in what they perceive to be the real world of entertainment, leisure, and media advertisements.
• An Analysis of Pop Art: Origins, Styles and Legacies By the end of the discussion, the essay aims to comprehensively cover the subject of pop art, in such a way that readers are able to narrate the history and origins of the art form, […]
• David Hockney: The Pop Artist and His Works The “Day Pool with 3 Blues” is a picture of extreme simplicity, and it is necessary to mention, that the advantage of this particular canvass is the feelings, that arise when the picture is viewed.
• Pop Art and Photorealism Movements Still now pop art is used heavily in the sphere of advertising. Pop art’s imagery is one of the most used concepts in all these fields.
• Andy Warhol’s Pop Art and Mass Production Why not decide that the world was as inanimate as the art-that the figure in the mirror was a corpse? Andy Warhol’s Pop art both celebrated and lamented the culture and situation of his time.
• Andy Warhol: An American Pop-Artist In the process of describing the creative process of Andy Warhol it is evident how closely the word ‘Genius’ is intertwined with their creativity.
• Contemporary Culture and Pop Art To understand the essence of pop Art better, the connection between the This is not a Pipe by Foucault and Plato and the Simulacrum by Deleuze and the works of pop art can be of […]
• How Pop Art Reflects the Values and Culture of the U.S. S and with an emphasis on how it reflects the core values and the culture of the people in the U.S.
• Western and Eastern Pop Art Differences For this reason, the modern age with its great dependence on money and consumer character of society gives rise to a question of whether there is a significant difference between western and eastern pop art […]
• Andy Warhol’s Pop Art This art work represents the classics of the genre of pop art. Poetry as a part of art works would be likely to turn pop art into postmodernism and add depth to the subject matter […]
• Andy Warhol: A Pop Art Icon In the year 1963, under the help of Gerard Malanga, an instructor and a mentor, Warhol initiated his own studio where he expounded the art of film making.
• The 1960s’ Pop Art Culture and Women
• The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Pop Arts
• Art Imitating Life Imitating Art: Andy Warhol and Pop-Art
• Andy Warhol and the Birth of Pop Art
• Andy Warhol Biography: The Most Popular Character in the Pop Art Movement
• Changes During the Pop Art Movement
• Explore the History of Pop Art: 1950s to the 1970s
• How Did Pop Art Challenge Beliefs in Consumerism
• Marilyn Monroe vs. Crying Girl: Who Is the Face of Pop Art
• Pop Art and Its Contemporary Social Values
• Pricing Revolution: From Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art
• Pop Art and Its Effect on Society
• The Birth and History of Pop Art in England
• Pop Art and Its Effects and Influences on Graphic Design
• The Controversial Visual Style of Pop Art of Andy Warhol
• Pop Art and Its Influence on American Culture
• The Development and Characteristics of Pop Art
• Pop Art and the Infamous Campbell’s Soup by Andy Warhol
• The Hidden Emotional Content of Pop Art
• Pop Art Was a Reflection of Consumer Society and Mass Media
• The History and Characteristics of Pop Art
• The Most Significant Artists of Pop Art in America
• Understanding the Movement of Pop Art and Its Aim to Make a Statement
• An Introduction to the Techniques and Characteristics of Pop Art
• An Introduction to the History and the Origins of Pop Art
• A History and the Influences of Pop-Art, a Modern Art Direction
• Media Influence on Formal and Iconographic Features of American Pop Art
• An Analysis of Pop Art and Surrealism in the Modern Age
• Pop Art and the Elements of Popular Art
• Pop Art Form a Critique of Post WWII Society and Culture
• Difference Between Minimalism and Pop Art
• Exploring the History of Pop Art: 1950s to the 1970s
• Pop Art: The Negative Impact of Materialism and Consumerism
• Investigation of the Relationship Between Pop Art and Postmodern Architecture
• The Influence of Pop Art on Contemporary Art Practise
• The Role of Andy Warhol in Shaping What Pop Art Truly
• What Makes Pop Art So Appealing
• What Pop Art Is and How It Is Used
• Disparities of American Pop Art and Abstraction
• The Relationship Between Art Nouveau Illustrations and Contemporary Entertainment Pop Art
• What Is the Difference Between Pop Art and Traditional Art?
• How Have Pop Artists Benefited the Most from Consumerism?
• What Is the Main Idea of Pop Art?
• Is Pop Art Abstract or Realistic?
• What Is the Purpose Behind Most Works of Pop Art?
• How Did Pop Art Movement Influence Interior Design?
• What Are the Characteristics of Andy Warhol’s Controversial Pop Art Visual Style?
• How Did Social, Political, and Cultural Factors Influence Pop Art?
• Was Pop Art Simply a Reflection of Consumer Society and the Media or a Critique?
• What Is Pop Art and Why Is It Relevant Today?
• How Does Pop Art Influence Graphic Design?
• What Are the Modern Social Values of Pop Art?
• Which American Artist Was a Leading Figure in Pop Art Movement?
• What Is the Most Memorable Thing About Pop Art?
• How Are Pop Art, Impressionism, Post-impressionism, and Expressionism Related to Each Other?
• What Made Pop Art Different Than Other Art Styles?
• Is Pop Art a Hidden Critique of Consumerism?
• What Emotional Tone Can Be Detected in Pop Art?
• How Does Pop Art Differ from Other Art?
• What Are the Differences Between Pop Art, Culture, and Craft?
• Does the Hidden Emotional Content of Pop Art Exist?
• Who Are the Most Significant Artists of Pop Art in America?
• How Did Consumerism Affect Pop Art?
• What Are the Unique Characteristics of Pop Art?
• Was Andy Warhol the Founder and Main Figure of the Pop Art Movement?
• What Are Some Examples of Pop Art Culture in America?
• Was Pop Art Concerned With Society’s Shift Towards Consumerism?
• Why Is Pop Art So Appealing to Modern Society?
• Is Pop Art Concerned with the Societal Shift Towards Consumerism?
• What Influence Does Pop Art Have on American Culture?
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Essay on Pop Art

An intensive development of pop art (popular art) began in the end of 1950s. Its figurative language was unusual, ironical. It was like a mockery of beauty, spirituality and art. Pop art appeared in Great Britain, but French and American artistsgained the real fame. Similar art movements appeared in Italy, Germany and even in the USSR (at that time it was separated from the rest of the world with the “iron curtain”).

In 1952 several critics, painters and architects founded “The Independent Group” in London to study modern technologies and urban folk culture (Honnef 16). Painters Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton were studying the “images” of mass culture on the basis of American culture. Painters created collages taking the most popular themes from newspapers and the publicity of new industrial products. Lawrence Alloway,a member of “The Independent Group”, proposed to call this new art phenomenon “pop art” (Honnef 18).The earliest works of pop artwere Richard Hamilton’s collage “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”(pic.1) and Eduardo Paolozzi’s“I was a Rich Man’s Plaything”(pic.2).

The ideology of equal opportunities and fetishism of commodities leaded to the development of pop art in the USA in the late 1950s. American pop art got it international fame due to Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein andAndy Warhol (Danto 9).

Roy Lichtensteinused acid colors and different printing methods. His oil paintings with plots from the comics symbolized an American life in ironical way (pic.3).Andy Warholwas an American painter, designer, writer. He was a cult figure in the movement of pop art and in the modern art in whole (Danto 23). He created world-famous picture of Marilyn Monroe in the technique of serigraphy (pic.4).Claes Oldenburgwas a famous American sculptor, a classic of pop art. His feature was creating common things in huge scale and putting them somewhere in the environment of the city (Osterwold 98). For example, there is his sculpture of huge needle with multicolored thread in front of railroad station in Milan (pic.5).

The prosperity of pop art design fell on turbulent 1960s: young people rebelled against society system in the USA and Europe. Pop art’s feature was the combination of challenge with indifference: everything was equally valuable or worthless, beautiful or ugly (Honnef 29). Advertising was based upon the same attitude. That is why publicity greatly influenced on the pop art. A lot of its representatives worked in the sphere of advertising.

American commerce invented such products that were always good, cheap and equally accessible. Pop art became a kind of monument for such products and social equality. Consuming products people could identify themselves with any other consumer of the same product (Osterwold 119). Andy Warhol said “Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola and you can drink it too. All Coca-Cola bottles are good and all of them are the same” (Danto 41). Thus, Andy Warhol glorified consuming and made it a part of his art. An example of this consuming ideology is Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans (Tomato) (pic.6).

Pop design was tightly connected with an American dream of absolutely consuming world view. The idea of producing durable products changed to the slogan “use today – throw away tomorrow”. Pop design with its bright colors, cheap goods and bold shapes became the style of the youth. “Pop”meantbeingfashionable and corresponding to the spirit of the time (Osterwold 125). Thus, Allen Jones created half-naked beauties that were articles of furniture at the same time: his work Chair is an example of pop design(pic.7). Insuchawayheput the question aboutaboundbetweenartandfunctional design.

Pop art transformed images of people, foodstuff and common things into something of a cult.The main point of pop art in interior design is to stupefy and even shock people. It is a part of mass culture that is still topical in modern society. There are no traditional rules of design for pop art (Osterwold 156). The bounds of walls and ceiling are fuzzy; the principal attention is focused on the details. White is the main color, but it is combined with several bright contrasting tints (pic.8). The riot of color can seem fresh and unusual but at the same time it can quickly fatigue a person. The walls are usually multicolored (pic.9, 10). Sometimes people use wallpapers with the effect of optical illusion (a picture can appear and disappear) (Osterwold 158). The ceiling can be either usual or with niches of asymmetrical levels and colored light.There are few articles of furniture in pop art design. The lack of furniture compensates with its unusual shape of women’s silhouettes or a toon’s look. Surfaces are covered with graffiti, comics or posters.

Thereby, we can conclude that the movement of pop art is still topical nowadays. People widely use pop art style to designtheir houses, developing it more and more.

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