Artistic Movement: Pop Art

Leigh Cardi

Visual Literacy

Tom Hammond

7 April 2010

Artistic Movement: Pop Art

Throughout time artistic movements have been established as a result of influences in that time period. It is a fact that different styles of art grab the attention of all types of people, which, as a result, inspires creativity. This creativity pushes artists in the direction of what they want to achieve, and in doing so, they inspire other artists to put their own spin on a certain style. These styles tend to be prevalent for a period of a few to many years. One movement in particular, known as pop art, is very striking, and different from any other technique used in the past. The integration of pop art into the world of expression paved the way for many films and graphic novels of the future.

Pop art first emerged in Britain in the early 1950s, and was influenced by American pop culture seen with a foreign eye. This artistic movement is said to have stemmed from Dadaism; a movement that had tones of satire and anarchy. Some artists that created the inspiration in others to produce pop art are Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Mann Ray. In 1952, the Independent Group was founded in London and consisted of young painters, sculptors, and artists of the like who challenged modernist approaches to culture and traditional views of fine art. They discussed pop culture as it related to mass advertising, films, product design, and technology. During their second meeting in 1955, the term “pop art” was used freely, as it was coined by John McHale in 1954. Word then started to spread about the movement to other parts of the world.

Eventually, pop art made its way to the United States in the late 1950s. In contrast to the British movement, American pop artists had experience and understanding of American pop culture. During the 1960s, American pop art was in full swing. By this time, advertising reflected modern art and had become very sophisticated. This meant that the artists had work very hard to create art that was set apart from advertisements. Two American pop artists that made a name for themselves early in the movement are Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. While Rauschenberg’s paintings were very similar to Dadaism, his focus was on social issues on the moment. A currently popular artist that uses pop art is his style of choice is Peter Max. In his paintings he depicts images on pop culture paired with vibrant, eye catching, colors. For example, some of his paintings illustrate the Statue of Liberty, Shaquille O’Neal, and the Twitter logo. Not only has pop art carried on through present time paintings, but it has also been portrayed in films.

The film Sin City, released in 2005, was based off of Frank Miller’s film noir-style graphic novels. The plot of the movie is four stories of corruption the are intertwined within one another. Along with corruption comes the criminals, crooked cops, and steamy love stories, all adapted from Miller’s comics. Since pop art is derived from works of art and everyday american objects, such as comic books, Sin City fits the mold. Not only for this reason, but also because the film depicts the typical American gangster story seen numerous times in film.

With the fading movement of Dadaism in the late 1940s, in came the new artistic wave called pop art. Although it got it’s start in Britain in the early 1950s, it become exceptionally popular in the United States in the late 1950s. The images in the two countries contrasted in style though, because of their different views of American pop culture. The movement clearly made an impact on the artists of today, as well. Director and graphic novelist Frank Miller showed his creativity in the field when he created both the graphic novel and film “Sin City”. Miller’s work depicts the quintessential American way, as does the style of pop art.