Every type of art is beautiful – whether it comes from the humanism and renaissance period, baroque, realism or postmodernism. The ability to express one’s thinking through a simple and unique painting is beautiful and something to be admired. The fact is, most of the painters became famous just after their death as people seem to start respecting things once they are gone. But, nevertheless, civilization has given us enough masters like Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, that it is now up to us to be thankful and admire their masterpieces.
Still, a thing that has taken people by the storm, especially the wealthier ones (the beginning of the 50s), is a thing called Pop art. The main difference of Pop art compared to the abstract expressionism was the fact that it had a goal of going straight to its meaning, without any surrealistic or ambiguous points. And that’s what people liked. Most famous Pop art pieces are the ones depicting celebrities, politicians, or as simple as using cans and comics to depict the point. The simplicity of it is the thing that earned its fame.
History Of Pop Art
Pop art had its beginnings in New York with Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rosenquist leading the new movement. Very soon it spread to the UK and there begun the second school of Pop art. The thing that made this artist really popular is the fact that they did not focus on images like mythology, moral or religion, but rather on everyday life and simple things. Through this way, it became one of the most popular types of art nowadays. Easily noticed it is usually a point of street art as well, and many amateur painters have that try at it, as the only thing you need is creativity and the knowledge of the everyday modern culture. In the 21st century, and with the internet becoming the main marketplace, a lot of websites like PopCultArt are now selling the paintings of everyday people, trying their best at depicting the ideas of this movement.
The Main Ideas Of Pop Art
The main idea of Pop art certainly is to erase any boundaries between the high and low society. And it succeeds in that by using simple objects, and techniques to depict everyday figures and icons that everyone knows and love. They search for their ideas in modern ads, cartoons, and interconnection of all things.
While some might say that Pop art paintings or sculptures are emotionless, the supporters express the fact that the idea of Pop art is to shorten the gap between people and modern culture, rather than to get into any deeper meanings. It wants to express the art as a commodity for every person, especially in the times where we seem to have lost the clue on what is really worth. And Pop art shows that culture and art can be fun as well as simple.
Most Famous Pop Art Pieces
- Marilyn Diptych. This painting consisting of 50 pictures together, is certainly one of the most famous Warhol’s works. Done in the year of Monroe’s death, this silkscreen painting depicts everything a Pop art piece should. A modern icon, depicted in a way that was recognizable to the wide masses. Although at first pictures seem alike, the shades are constantly changing depending on what angle you look at it, and as a result of different oil and paints.
- I Was A Rich Man’s Plaything. One of the first Pop art pieces, and done by Scottish sculptor Paolozzi in 1947, was one of the foundational pieces for the later Pop art ways. It combines a military ad, a pulp fiction alike cover and a Coca-cola ad – everything that was simple and known to all people around at that time. It’s the main point was the impact that technology and modern culture were making on art at that point.
- President-Elect. Done by Rosenquist, this one depicts John F. Kennedy’s face among popular items like a yellow Chevrolet as well as a piece of chocolate cake. Rosenquist got an idea for this masterpiece by seeing how much people are obsessed with advertising themselves in ridiculous ways, and so was his thinking of John F. Kennedy’s campaign.
Summary
As you can see, widely different from any other known type of art, Pop art made a big influence on people and nowadays culture as well. Still pretty popular, you can get beautiful Pop art pieces on websites like PopCultArt, offering unique work of artists all around the world. The prices you pay are nothing comparing to the feeling you get once you own a thing that in just a few simple points depicts the whole mass culture!