Influence of Pop Art Essay

The Influence of Pop Art Illustration Essay To be someone who goes ‘against the crowd’, you must have a lot of courage. Well, back in the late 1950’s, pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and many others did exactly that. During this time period, pop art was a challenge to the traditions of fine art by using images of pop culture. You may be asking yourself, what is pop art? Pop art consists of objects that are removed from their original context and combined with unrelated material. In her article from Design Magazine, Adriana Marinica has a great explanation of how pop art appeals to us Americans and how pop art has it’s own style, â€Å"This art derives its style from the visual activities and pleasures of people: television, magazines and comics. † (Marinica) Pop art influenced American culture greatly while influencing the art culture as well. It created a different perspective for art, rather than fine art. Most people have seen Andy Warhol’s work, the most famous being the campbells soup cans, he is the most known pop artist. Not only did pop art influence American culture but it also influenced British culture, but in a different way. In 1952 was the beginning of the pop art movement known as â€Å"The Independent Group† who represented young artists of that time. Even today, pop art is still seen around the media and even street art. Back in it’s time, pop art was much different than anything anyone has seen. It has been the most â€Å"popular† art movements of the modern era. This movement was supposed to be a rebellion towards the ‘Abstraction Expressionists’, or artists who were perceived to be pretentious and over-intense. Fine art was popular from the 17th century on, it had much detail and focused on being realistic including paintings and drawings, while compared to pop art which has bright colors and it is more cartoony and not very realistic. Pop artists took images from popular media which made it easy to relate to the works. With the images from popular media, they would combined it with a background or other objects that had nothing to do with the media images. On the other end of the spectrum, most fine artists used a contemporary style while pop artists were more focused on the  attitudes rather than the art itself, such as irony and parody styles. Most pop artists prefer to use colors such as red, yellow, and blue since they are so vivid and are sure to grab your attention. Marilyn Diptych (1962). Campbells Soup (1968). Just a few of Andy Warhol’s most known pieces of pop art. You’ve seen the multi-colored soup can picture in your high school art class, and maybe you’ve seen the oddly colored portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol had many other different styles and pieces, but he was very popular with his pop art works. Warhol seemed to have a great interest in creating images of well known actors and actresses. Not only is the iconic Andy Warhol famous for his pop art, we need to recognize that there are many other artists who have adopted the pop art culture. Some of those artists include Crash, Jim Dine, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, and Tom Wesselmann. Pop art became very popular in the late 1950’s in North American culture. The term ‘pop art’ was officially introduced in December of 1962. Origins of pop art in North America emerged as a way of expression for artists at a time where the world was lacking any interest or excitement. This movement was to emphasise that pop art could take images from mass-media from popular culture and can still be considered fine art. At this time advertising had used many elements of modern art, which had artists searching for more clever ways to advertise to keep up with the changing world. American artists found their inspirations by living within our culture. In the United States, pop art was made as a representational art as an ironic response by artists to subdue the personal symbolism. Mass produced imagery was very popular in America, these works of art had more bold and aggressive overtones. Back in the 1950’s and 60’s pop art was associated with pop music which includes swinging and covers of the Beatles’ and Elvis Presley’s cover albums designed by the pop artist Peter Blake. In contrast, Great Britain viewed American pop art from a different perspective. Great Britain adopted romantic, sentimental, and even humorous overtones. Early pop art in Britain was inspired by American pop culture, but they did not experience this culture as Americans had. During the time of post-war, pop art culture improved the prosperity of their society. English pop was considered to be more of a metaphor or to have a theme. Introduced in the United Kingdom, the Independent Group was formed in London, 1952. This was a group of young painters, sculptors, architects, writers, and critics who were challenging modernist approaches to the culture and traditions of the fine arts. The group was mainly about popular culture implications from mass advertising, movies, product design, comic strips, science fiction, and technologies. Even with origins early as the 1950’s, pop art culture is still very alive to this day. Pop art has a very strong influence on today’s top fashion designers. As Marylou Luther of the Cleveland, Northeast Ohio News states, â€Å"To me, the most important art force that has popped back into fashion and the one most likely to have a trickle-down effect to the streets is Pop art. The art movement has been so iconic and profound that it is still featured, studied, and produced to this day. Some inspirations are helpful towards interior architecture, fashion, fabric, and something even as simple as packaging. A popular way pop art is used is the well known comic style that is based on American animations. While searching for how pop art is used today, I found a quote on a website that I felt should be included in this essay, â€Å"This type of fine art is so popular nowadays that we recognize its potential to continue growing and attracting more followers all around the world. As you can see, pop art has had a very big impact on our culture that we still see to this day. Not only has it inspired our culture and our artists, but even other countries’ culture and artists as well. I can say that I’ve been inspired by pop artist Andy Warhol with his amazing works of art. As we see daily; Hollywood, magazines, television, and newspapers are all producing different images which is enlarging popular culture majorly. Without the pop art movement, our culture would not be the same. Marinica’s point of view may better help how pop art has influenced our culture and how it is still very much alive today; she states, â€Å"Pop Art continues to be hailed as a success to this day, whether we’re talking about original pieces selling for big money, or prints selling in huge numbers. It became clear that pop art was much more than just a statement and it’s hard to ignore it. You can see it wherever you go. It’s in public places and even advertising, as it was used initially in the 1950s.