INTRODUCTION

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during

the mid- to late-1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including
imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural
objects. One of its aims is to use images of popular (as opposed to elitist) culture in art,
emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any culture, most often through the use of irony. It
is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering
techniques. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated,
or combined with unrelated material.

Pop art is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism,
as well as an expansion of those ideas. Due to its utilization of found objects and images, it is
similar to Dada. Pop art is considered to be an art movement that precede postmodern art, or is
considered one of the earliest examples of postmodern art.

FAMOUS ARTISTS

Among the early artists that shaped the pop art movement were Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard
Hamilton in Britain, and Larry Rivers, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns among others in
the United States.

USAGE
Pop art often takes imagery that is currently in use in advertising. Product labeling and logos
figure prominently in the imagery chosen by pop artists, seen in the labels of Campbell's Soup
Cans, by Andy Warhol. Even the labeling on the outside of a shipping box containing food items
for retail has been used as subject matter in pop art, as demonstrated by Warhol's Campbell's
Tomato Juice Box,1964 (pictured).

FACTS
1. Pop Art is one of the most “popular” art movements of the Modern Era. The pop
art movement started as a rebellion against the Abstract Expressionists, which were
considered to be pretentious and over-intense.

2. Pop Art is an art form that reflected a return to material realities of peoples’
everyday life. It actually means the return to popular culture, thus the name “pop.”
This art derives its style from the visual activities and pleasures of people: television,
magazines and comics.

3. The “place of birth” of the Pop Art movement was Britain in the mid-1950s, but
was present in the United States by the late 1950s. The purpose was to challenge
tradition and assumed that the visual elements of the mass-media from the popular
culture can be considered fine art.

4. Pop art relies on extracting material from its context and isolating it or associating
it with other subjects for contemplation.

5. Pop Art coincided with the pop music phenomenon of the 50s’ and 60s’ and it’s
highly associated with the swinging and fashionable image of London. For
example, Peter Blake created the cover designs for The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
More than that, he included actresses like Brigitte Bardot in his works, similar to the
way Andy Warhol used Marilyn Monroe as a model.

6. In comparison to English Pop, which was more referential and subjective,
American Pop art was considered emblematic, anonymous and aggressive. The
main concept English Pop artists considered was theme or metaphor.

On the other hand, Andy Warhol’s motto was “I think everybody should be a
machine.” As a result, he tried to make his art look like it was created by a machine.

8. Pop artists from the United States used to duplicate, reproduce, overlay, combine
and arrange endless visual elements that represented the American society and
culture. Andy Warhol, one of the most famous American Pop Artists, had a real
interest in movie stars. In 1962 his passion reflected in his works portraying Marilyn
Monroe.

9. Andy Warhol summarized the Pop movement and the role of media in this famous
quote “In the future everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Hollywood,
magazines, television, and newspapers are all producing new images daily,
enlarging the popular culture. All that surrounds us are images ready to be
consumed.

10. The Pop art movement is defined by themes and techniques drawn from the
popular mass culture. Areas like advertising, mundane cultural objects and comic
books. Pop Art employed images of popular culture in art, emphasizing banal
elements of any culture, usually through the use of irony.

11. The predominant colors used by Pop Art artists are yellow, red and blue. The
colors used were vivid. In contrast to other art movements, pop art’s colors don’t
reflect the artists’ inner sensation of the world. Instead, these colors refer to the
popular culture.

12. Roy Lichtenstein developed a style based on the visual vernacular of the comic

strip. The main characteristics of this style were bold colors, black outlines, and
tones rendered by Ben-day dots. These were the methods of printing tones in comic
books during the 1950s’ and the 1960s’.

13. The characteristics of Pop Art artworks were clear lines and representations of
symbols, people and objects found in the popular culture and sharp paintwork. The
Pop Art movement replaced the destructive, satirical and anarchic elements of the
Dada movement (a movement concentrated on anti-war politics and rejecting the
prevailing standards in art by creating anti-art cultural works) by having a reverence
for consumerism and mass culture.

14. During the pop art movement, artists enjoyed satirizing objects by enlarging
those objects to massive proportions. Food was a common theme in the pop
movement, as well as household objects such as chairs and toilets made of squishy
plastic instead of whatever materials they’re usually made of. For example, the Soft
Toilet by Claes Oldenburg.

15. During the Pop Art movement, you could see logos and product labelling within
imagery chosen by pop artists. Campbell’s Soup Cans labels by Andy Warhol for
example. Moreover, the labelling found on the shipping board that contained retail
items was used as inspiration for pop art.

16. The co-owner of Pop International Galleries in New York, Jeff Jaffe said that
“Pop Art is stronger than ever.” Of course, art dealers, collectors, publishers and
auction houses agree with him. They all point out some of the biggest names in
today’s art: Clemens Briels, Romero Britto, James Rizzi and Steve Kaufman among
others who all work in a Pop style and are typically very successful in the art
marketplace.

17. As its name implies, Pop Art is quite popular. Julie Maner, the director of
business affairs for the Museum Editions in New York, said that “all art appeals to
people on an emotional level, but Pop art is experienced on an experiential level. It
comes from our daily lives.”

18.  Pop Art features are still used today in print design, to create colorful birthday
cards, t-shirt designs, badges, calendars, posters, canvas – so it’s really hard to
ignore. The characteristics of this art movement, especially the bright colors and the
dots, never faded. This popular art form continues to fascinate the culture to this day.

19. Some people might find it curious how Pop Art has such a strong presence, even
47 years after it appeared. The answer is that Pop Art gathered a large number of
supporters over the years, and it turned out to be a great investment. Other people
just said that fashion has its periods when it returns to some of the early years, and
that’s what happened with Pop Art. There’s a hypothesis that it came back as a need
for Americans to be comforted by familiar things.

20.  Pop Art still stands as an inspiration for artists today. Many features from the
pop art movement can be recognized in today’s works, whether we’re talking about
web design, graphic design or other creative fields. Without a doubt, Andy Warhol
and Roy Lichtenstein’s works are among the most admired and have inspired many
contemporary artworks.

INDIAN CULTURE AND POP ART - KITSCH

This unique, classy, ridiculously eye catching, and flamboyant Indian kitsch art is
catching pace and is one of the most wanted art today specially by 'young India'.
A unique animated image of an old chai waala in the form of a coaster, pouring a
glass of tea into another vessel with his kettle merrily whistling away depicting the
traditional urban kettles of India in a unique, classy, ridiculously eye catching, and
flamboyant style or a tin box scattered with tiny images of various Indian originated,
animated themes like a society or a scene of a old city street. We have already, for
long, seen graphic artists and designers romancing the auto rickshaw, three-
wheelers, trucks and cycles.

Today, we have a wider range of street imagery being translated onto various
fashion and lifestyle arena. Pop art is a unique blend or pot-potpourri of the Indo-
western designs and cultures.

Indian leading designer Manish Arora had used pop art adorned graffiti wall as his
backdrop for his 2012 fall winter show. Channelling the comic book style of Roy
Lichtenstein, the 24-year-old Canadian, Maria Qamar, has poured her energy into
drawing what she knew - not realising at first how her satirical take would strike a
chord with other young people from the Indian diaspora. She draws the indian
aunties and is the founder of ‘hatecopy’, specialising in satirical and snooty takes on
the Indian society. Another leading Indian brand, ‘Chumbak’ is known for its pop-art-
kitsch inspired range of products.