Adamo Gallery demystifies art terms with our comprehensive guide series. Helping you feel more confident buying fine art.
What is Pop Art?
Pop art is an artistic movement that emerged in the mid-20th century, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is characterised by its use of popular culture imagery and themes, often drawn from advertising, comic books, consumer products, and mass media. Pop art emerged as a reaction against the elitist tendencies of the traditional art world, seeking to blur the boundaries between high art and popular culture.
There are four main themes to observe when looking at Pop Art;
Bold colours and techniques
Pop art often features vibrant and bold colours, as well as techniques borrowed from commercial printing processes such as screen printing and offset lithography.
Pure Evil's classic silkscreen pieces are emulative of portraits created by Andy Warhol in the 60's.
Screen printing, also known as silk screening, is a printing technique that involves transferring ink onto a substrate through a mesh screen stencil to create vibrant and durable images. Printing by screen is a laborious process that takes skilled printers decades to master.
Andy Warhol's famous prints were characterised by a set of bold and flat shapes paired with colours that would often contrast each other. Pure Evil has been inspired by Andy Warhol when creating his 'Nightmare Series', a body of work comprised of screen prints of famous women with a single tear to represent the ills of celebrity and stardom.
Screen printing played a significant role in the Pop Art movement by allowing artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to replicate and manipulate popular imagery with ease, contributing to the movement's aesthetic of mass production and blurring the lines between high and low art.
Use of everyday objects and images:
Pop artists often incorporated common objects and imagery from popular culture into their work, such as soup cans (as famously depicted by Andy Warhol), comic strips, celebrities, and consumer products.
JJ Adam's Soup Can series refer to the iconic collection of Soup Cans Andy Warhol created in the 60's.
This use of everyday items in artwork blurred the boundary between 'commercial art' (artwork used for design purposes) and 'fine art'. This revolutionary aspect completely transformed how accessible art could become, and in turn its popularity. Today we still are hugely influenced by the idea of fine art being something so 'ordinary'. We see artists such as JJ Adams tackle reflections of contemporary society such as an awareness of consumerism and material property in his digital pieces.
Overall, the soup cans became so prolific because they encapsulated Warhol's fascination with popular culture, consumerism, and the blurring of boundaries between art and commerce. Their enduring popularity also stems from their status as iconic symbols of the Pop Art movement.
Repetition and mass production:
Many pop artists embraced the idea of mass production, often repeating images or motifs within their work to emphasize the ubiquity of consumer culture.
Louis Sidoli's Space Race artwork uses repeated image stills on aluminium of the Apollo 11 Misson in 1969
Pop artists, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, sought to make viewers hyper-aware of the inundation of images in mass media and consumer culture. By reproducing and repeating images from popular culture, such as advertisements, comic strips, and celebrity portraits, Pop artists aimed to highlight the ubiquity of these images and provoke viewers to reconsider their significance.
Furthermore, by replicating images multiple times, Pop artists emphasise the reproducibility and disposable nature of images in contemporary society. They aimed to challenge viewers' desensitization to images by presenting them in a new context or with alterations that drew attention to their artificiality or constructed nature.
In essence, Pop Art sought to critique and comment on how images shape our understanding of the world and influence our perceptions of reality, often by making us more aware of how we consume and interact with visual culture.
Irony and critique:
While pop art celebrates elements of popular culture, it also often contains elements of irony and critique, questioning the role of consumerism, mass media, and celebrity in society.
Chris Chapman's satirical artworks convey a sense of irony in a fun and naïve manner
Modernist critics were horrified by the pop artists’ use of such ‘low’ subject matter and by their uncritical treatment of it. Pop both took art into new areas of subject matter and developed new ways of presenting it in art which can be seen as one of the first manifestations of postmodernism.
Pop Art invites us to approach fine art with a sense of levity, as contemporary pop artists frequently employ satire or humour in their creations. This method enables us to critically examine and analyse various components within the artwork.
What made Pop Art so important and relevant?
Pop artists often drew inspiration from advertisements, consumer products, and celebrity culture, reflecting the changing landscape of post-war society.
This connection between art and popular culture challenged traditional notions of high art, making pop art accessible and relevant to a broader audience. Additionally, pop art played a significant role in blurring the boundaries between fine art and commercial design, influencing subsequent movements such as minimalism and conceptual art.
'Arthur Miller's Nightmare' by Pure Evil; 'Pussay Patrol' by JJ Adams; 'Mick Jagger' by Louis Sidoli'
Pop Art is a style that we often gravitate toward. Bright colours, bold shapes, iconic people and satirical and comedic styles will often attract a large range of viewers and collectors. Take a look at some of our Pop Artists at Adamo Gallery;
In conclusion, pop art continues to captivate audiences worldwide with its vibrant colours, bold imagery, and profound commentary on modern culture.
Through the innovative lens of artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and others, pop art has transcended mere aesthetic appeal to become a powerful reflection of societal values, consumerism, and mass media influence.
Its influence permeates not only the art world but also fashion, advertising, and popular culture at large. As we reflect on the enduring legacy of pop art, we are reminded of its ability to challenge norms, spark dialogue, and celebrate the essence of everyday life in all its complexities. With its timeless appeal and ongoing relevance, pop art remains a dynamic force shaping our artistic landscape and collective imagination.