Pop Art
Pop Art Movement
Some art dictionaries suggest that Pop art developed in New York in the 1950’s. In fact, it was started in London in the 50’s by Richard Hamlton and was adopted in the 60’s by the likes of David Hockney and Peter Blake.
Then it moved to New York where in the hands of artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Roy Lichenstein, the concept of Pop Art really took off.
Pop Art is a direct descendant of Dadaism in the way it mocks the established art world by appropriating images from the street, the mass media, and presents popular culture as art in itself.
It was Andy Warhol, however, who really brought Pop Art to the public eye.
His screen prints of Campbell 's soup tins and film stars such as Marilyn Monroe, are part of the iconography of the 20th century. His suggestion that everyone should have '15 minutes of fame' has entered the English language as a concept. That's art at its best, right up there with The Beatles in terms of reaching the masses with your thoughts.
Another great exponent of this art form is Roy Lichenstein (featured above). He literally took the imagery of comic book magazines and reproduced them as art forms - dots and all.
Other leading artists in Pop were Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
