From Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art

Abstract Expressionism (1940s1950s) after World War II: pure abstraction and expression without form; Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko,

Mark Rothko's paintings with their large expanses of colour and uneven, hazy divisions. As Rothko stated, these artists "favor[ed] the simple expression of the complex thought." this new art was fueled by its makers' belief in art's ability to communicate universal, spiritual truths. Rothko's fluid washes of paint, for example, stand in contrast to De Kooning's energetic, nearly violent brushstrokes. Yet both artists believed strongly in the ability of art to evoke powerful and meaningful emotions in the viewer.

2. Andy Warhol was American Pop Artist , Warhol started out as an illustrator and was at the centre of the pop art scene during the sixties and seventies. He was known for his repetitive use of the same image, most famously using Campbells is influences by Cola over and over again. He loved 1. 1960s popular art soup and Coca consumerism. We celebrities and Hollywood Warhol saw this became theof1960s - his work. Many a reflection of contemporary 3.willand the glamour aesthetic focus of Andy Warhol of his works were look at POP Artists from the mass-production as produced in his factoryAmerican army of workers produced his work on a hugeis that America started the tradition where an culture: "What's great about this country scale and Roy Lichtenstein. where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can He looked at everyday watching TV and see Coca of the and you knowfrom the President drinks Coca Cola, be objects in American popular culture such as that shops, advertising, As the economic prosperity Cola, 1950s and 1960s comics, newspapers,Liz Taylor about an increase in the ordinary objectthedrink Coca enough to A coke is a TV and the movies. and made consumerism and look valuable Cola, too. brought drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can be put in the museum developmentfound images and advertising, better coke than the one the bum on the art. He no amount media of celebrities and products from coke and used of theof money can get you a artists began shops which he thought were very boring and inspiration in the world hethe same and all more interesting. corner is for with the All the printing around them. look the cokes are good. Liz Taylor to look drinking. use of cokes are made them He thought that if heknows prints of the objects then theybum not look like they were made by obvious irony made it, the President knows it, the will knows it, and you know it." The a machine. Warhol was very Art Movement The word price Art that Coke Popularhits the stratosphere as soon as of Pop interested by that everyday objects. for made prints from images of this statement is this the POP of is shot He bottle Art. celebrities to soup cans. name says itwas The Pop Artof 'Campbell's Chicken Noodle' or a 'Car WarholWhether it all. a painting movement wanted to bring The signs it Crash', a portrait of 'Elizabeth Taylor' or the 'Electric Chair', Warhol's detached approach was art back into the daily life of people. It was a reaction against always the same: "I think every painting should be the red and yellow-inas too of his pieces.they're colors gave Warhol used the primarywhich POP artists considered the same color so These abstract painting, colors-blue, same size and many all interchangeable and nobody thinksandpop culture.artists' favorite images element used in his iconic Campbell's his work the feeling they have a better orcolors were an were sophisticated of elite. POP Bright worse painting." soup cans from Coca-Cola cans, as well cans for Andy Warhol or objects and everyday's life like soup as his Marilyn paintings. comics for Roy Lichtenstein.

ANDY WARHOL

Campbells Soup Cans

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Warhol was against the idea of skill and craftsmansh Andy Warhol said of Campbells Soup,I used to drink it.as a way of expressing the artist's personality. H I used to have the same lunch every day, for twenty years, I claimed to have removed both craftsmanship an personality from his own art: guess, the same thing over and over again. Someone said my life has dominated me; I liked that idea.

"The reason I'm painting this way is that I want to be In the early 1960s, he began to experiment with machine, and I feel that whatever I do and do machin like is what I want to do............ reproductions based on advertisements, newspaper headlines and other mass-produced images from American popular culture such as Campbell's soup tins and Coca If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look Cola bottles. the surface of my paintings and films and me, there I am There's nothing behind it." His works were produce Discussion Questions: through the mechanical processes of film and silkscree printing or made by others in his studio which was calle 1. What would you love to eat every day for 20 years 'The Factory'. 2. 3. What would be torture for you to eat every day? When an artist repeats an image over and over again, what effect does it have on the viewer? Why do you think Andy Warhol made so many Campbells Soup Can paintings?

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video on screen-printing

IntroductiontoPopArt http://youtu.be/IxcJsXyWtQ

Elvis
Warhol was drawn to the glamorous worlds of Hollywood, fashion, and celebrity. His interest in pop culture manifested itself early on in his childhood collection of autographed celebrity photographs. Warhol bought and read teen magazines and tabloids to stay current on what was pop, even into adulthood. He carried this interest into his artwork, creating iconic paintings of mega-stars such as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and Elizabeth Taylor. Warhol found images for his portraits from magazines, newspapers, or directly from publicity photographs. Warhol used photographic silkscreen to create his celebrity portraits. This method of printing creates a very precise and defined image and allows the artist to mass-produce a large number of prints with relative ease. Warhol adopted the methods of mass production to make images of movie stars that were themselves mass-produced. Elvis Presley existed not only as a flesh-and-blood person but also as millions of pictures on album covers and movie screens, in newspapers and magazines. He was infinitely reproducible. Similarly, through use of the silkscreen printing process, Warhol could produce as many Elvis paintings as he pleased.

Evis

The Death of Glamour Marilyn Monroe;"Marilyn Diptych"

"a stark and unresolved dialectic of presence and absence, life and death", meditating on the conflict between Marilyn's immortality as a movie star, whose image and being lives on, captured for all eternity on rolls of film, and the real life death of Norma Jean.

1 Warhol's statements such as, "I am a deeply superficial person" or "art should be meaningful in the most shallow way" are echoed in his work. The left hand panel of his Marilyn Diptych is a crudely colored photograph of the actress whose sense of 'self' is degraded through the repetition of her image, whereas the right hand panel is a physically degraded black and white image (as the printing ink runs out on the silkscreen) that reflects the short-lived qualities of fame. Their combined panels are a memorable discourse on the nature of celebrity and its power to both create and destroy its acquaintances. The 'diptych' format was originally used in medieval painting for religious images of personal devotion, an appropriate choice considering Warhol's fascination for Marilyn Monroe. The work was exhibited in Warhol's first New York exhibition at the Stable Gallery in November 1962, just weeks after Marilyn's death from 'acute barbiturate poisoning'. The Marilyn Diptych, along with his other famous Marilyn paintings, is based on a 1953 publicity photograph for the film 'Niagara' that Warhol purchased only days after she died.

'Whaam!' is based on an image from 'All American Men of War' published by DC comics in 1962. Throughout the 1960s, Lichtenstein frequently drew on commercial art sources such as comic images or advertisements, attracted by the way highly emotional subject matter could be depicted using detached techniques. Transferring this to a painting context, Lichtenstein could present powerfully charged scenes in an impersonal manner, leaving the viewer to decipher meanings for themselves. In these works as in 'Whaam!', he adapted and developed the original composition to produce an intensely stylised painting. (or unreal/cartoon) WHAAM! An explosion erupts; blazing flames and smoke fill the sky. Why has this happened? What happens next? Who are the characters in this story? The artist Roy Lichtenstein was inspired by American comics about war when he made this painting. Not only was he interested in the stories they told, but also in the way that comic books were produced. He carefully studied the way small dots of ink were printed close to each other to appear like large blocks of colour on the page. He was also fascinated by the way that bold lines, strong colours and text were used to depict powerful stories. Lichtenstein used these ideas to make this painting.

Pop Art Notes Pop Art was young and fun art movement of the 1960's. Pop Art coincided with the globalization of Pop Music and youth culture. Pop Art included different styles of painting and sculpture but all had a common interest in mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture. Pop Art in America was a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. The artist who personifies Pop Art more than any other is Andy Warhol. Warhol's paintings of Marilyn Monroe are the most famous icons of Pop Art. Roy Lichtenstein developed an instantly recognizable style of Pop Art inspired by the American comic strip.

POP ART

Ask students to define popular culture. How is popular culture influenced by advertising? How are people influenced by the media and advertising? How and why do advertisers promote products? Ask students what affect the media has on their lives

POPART
2012 http://youtu.be/0bXYy8fCk44

More variety of Pop Artists on this site: -

http://youtu.be/BTqpllweDuI