Pop Art
Mid 1950s- Late 1960s
Background
Artists
Major artists are Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist.
- Roy Lichtenstein: He was able to prove that he could make an excellent composition of high demand, even though his subject matter came from comic books. Not only did he use Pop Art's bright colors and clear outlines, he also used Ben-Day, which is where an artist uses small dots for color and shading in comics. Lichtenstein changed the distinction between mass reproduction and "high" art.
- James Rosenquist: Rosenquist used direct images of pop culture in his paintings and expressed his art through juxtapositions of products and celebrities. He even often included some political messages in his pieces. He collaged magazine clippings and photograph spreads. With his workings being larger(and wider) than 20 ft, he had high, and sometimes royal, art subjects.
- Claes Oldenburg: He started his art career with small scale wire and plaster sculptures ranging from pastries to men/women's underwear. He always focused on common objects while keeping a playful attitude towards mundane things throughout his career. Oldenburg had sculptures ranging from small scale to a 45ft high "Clothespin".
- Andy Warhol: Andy Warhol is the most famous and well-known pop artist. His early works depicted everyday common goods, such as: Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell's Soup cans. He went from hand painting to screen printing to large scale replications. He was able to prove that paintings were no different than Campbell's Soup.
Pop Art pieces
Favorite Works
"Crying Girl" is my favorite work because it's detailed while still being simplistic. You are able to see all the dots that creat the color of her skin, which I find super amazing and intricate. I like that the outlines are both bold, and thin in areas where it needs, so that it pops off of the page. It has some movement to it. For example, most human beings will look at a persons face, so that's where I looked first, and my eyes followed the painting from the right(?) side of her face to her hand down to the stripes on her shirt and up and around her head and down to the largest portion of her hair in the bottom right corner.
Overall though, this piece is just aesthetically pleasing to me.