World War II: The Influence Of Pop Art

Pop Art emerged in Britain in the late 50’s and the United States in the early 60’s.(Mamiya 1992) Pop Art is generally known today as a representation of celebrating popular culture and consumerism, however it’s background and origins are far more broad and extensive. There are many factors and influences that lead to the creation of the Pop Art movement such as adjusting to life after World War II, new technological advances that lead to mass cooperate growth, the evolution of Abstract Expressionism and also social issues in the media such as feminism. (Smith 2001; Mamiya 1992) Many of these factors overlap and act as a catalyst in the creation of Neodadaism and eventually Pop Art. (Livingstone 1992) Pop Art does not have a soul distinct style nor just one major influence and this can be proven by looking at key artists of the movement such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist as well as female Pop artists such as Martha Rosler. (Brauer, Edwards, Finch & Hopps 2001) Exploring these artists and the major influences of their work will break down Pop Art and establish the movement’s purpose as well as its evolution.

The term ``Pop Art'' was first used by the English critic Lawrence Alloway in a 1958 issue of Architectural Digest to describe those paintings that celebrate post-war consumerism, defy the psychology of Abstract Expressionism, and worship the god of materialism. The most famous of the Pop artists, the cult figure Andy Warhol, recreated quasi-photographic paintings of people or everyday objects.

World War 1 art was first introduced when world leaders felt they would benefit by having artists on the front lines sketching and painting the scenes of warfare. They gathered eight daring artists determined to bring the aspects and details of war effort home. The artists sketched all from allied powers and central powers to the prisoners of war.

In the very beginning, PopArt began in Britain in the way early 1950s. Arthistory.com says “ The first application of the term PopArt occurred during discussions among artist who called themselves the Independent Group (IG), which was part of the Institute of contemporay art in London, begun around 1952-1953.”. The Pop Art movement was mostly associated with these New York artists, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist,and Claes Oldenburg.

Another painting that I liked was by Harace Pippin and it was called The Ending of the War, Starting Home. This painting depicted the scene of a battle. The painting was very active. It depicted men running for cover and jumping over barricades. However, that not was intrigued me about this painting. What got my attention was actually the frame of the painting. Along the frame Pippin hand-carved 3D images of bayonets, bombs, grenades, helmets, knives, and tanks. It almost made it seem like the battle was spilling out of the painting and into the gallery. Pippin made his painting interesting by combining 2D and 3D art together, which I figured out

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. It appreciates popular culture, or also called “material culture.” It does not criticize the consequences of materialism and consumerism; it merely recognizes its universal presence as a accepted fact. Obtaining consumer goods, responding to ingenious advertisements and erecting more effectual forms of mass communication (back then: movies, television, newspapers and magazines) stimulated energy amongst young people. Pop Art celebrated the United Generation of Shopping. It employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and ordinary cultural objects as well as including imagery from

Many of the Avante Garde contemporary art were either laughed about in cartoon strips, puzzled viewers or made them angry. The American people felt the European art often relished by wealthy art connoisseurs was a step backward in American culture. Moreover, several Americans found the primitive, distorted imagery threatening to American civilization and the United States progress. Also many American’s were afraid the art form itself represented an adaptation to modern society.

Pop art was a movement that was used in the 1950’s in Britain, but in the late 1950’s in the United States. Pop art is still seen today in cartoons around the world. Andy Warhol, Rich Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, and Larry Rivers helped to shape the pop art movement. Pop arts’ imagery affected modernism heavily. Pop art artists would celebrate commonplace and people of everyday by doing this they could elevate popular culture.

In order to discuss pop art I have chosen to examine the work and to some extent lives of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol who were two of the main forces behind the American movement. I intend to reflect the attitudes of the public and artists in America at this time, while examining the growing popularity of pop art from its rocky, abstract expressionist start in the 1950s through the height of consumer culture in the 60s and 70s to the present day.

Pop was the invention of the era of wealth and consumerism experience by western industrial society in the 1950s and 1960s. Both pop’s impact and expression were most distinct in the UK. Pop was so bizarre in its open-minded values and flashy appearance compare to the commonly dull conservatism of English culture and its expression because of the extant of the response to the prevalent British social and cultural situation. The term Pop Art is an abbreviation of Popular Art. Artists of this movement used ordinary everyday items to depict essentials of popular culture, mostly images in advertising and television. The term “Pop Art” was created in 1958 by an English critic Lawrence

Pop Art was a 20th century art movement that utilized the imagery and techniques of consumerism and popular culture as well as mass media and advertising

Pop Art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and the late 1950s in the United States. Andy Warhol’s different style of pop art transitioned the dull style of art to something that no one has seen before. Warhol focused on putting “pop art” into the mass production of commercial goods. The many pop art paintings such as Marilyn Monroe, Coca-Cola, and others made him famous which stood out the most to most oh his work.

Pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist celebrated commonplace objects as a way of seeking to elevate popular culture to the level of fine art. With the increasing influence of television and mass media outlets, Americans were constantly bombarded with popular culture imagery. These three artists replicate and elevate this imagery to create something more than the sum of its parts. By using high-style treatment of commercial imagery, repetition in series paintings, and distortion and abstraction of familiar images they explore what high art really is.

Arguably one of his most famous pieces of art, Whamm! displays this method of painting. Those methods make the panels look different from the original panels but remarkably similar at the same time. By designing his subjects the way the mass media portrayed them, rather than attempting to accurately reproduce the subject Lichtenstein helped define the Pop Art movement.

World War II was a war that was forever etched in history as a result of it destruction and overwhelming body count. But who would have thought that this war would have found a way to impact art before it’s time. Before Hitler rose to power, he used the civil war in Spain around 1936 as his personal field test. In response, arts took to their trade to cope with their frustration and express their opinions. Then as war was on the verge of beginning, Hitler stole modern art from Jewish artists and put them in his own show. His show was titled “Degenerate Art,” and it portrayed the artist as demented people who were a hindrance to society. He felt sane people were incapable of producing such abstract art. He went on to sponsor another