Pop Art

Pop art was very popular in the 1950’s , it was a new way to display textures through lines and patterns and use different gradations of color. It instantly became popular among the mass media being used in advertisements and eventually leading to many homes owning pieces of celebrity portraits as décor. Pop Art was intended to have bold colors, to be low-cost, sexy, gimmicky and with the intended audience for the younger generations. Richard Hamilton is a British Pop artist considered to be a founding father of this modern art movement. He brought on the idea that art shouldn’t just be for commercial use and allowed for other artist to incorporate all objects and ideas into Pop art. One of Hamilton’s famous pieces is a collage he created for a catalog exhibition at the London’s Whitechapel Gallery in 1956. The collage is set to display all the “temptations” a woman and man were sitting upon after the war consumer boom.

This is Tomorrow, Richard Hamilton

Hamilton used pictures cut out from American magazines that was meant to show America’s luxurious lifestyle that was very different compare to people of England who were still struggling to get by. This piece, was meant to be funny and brought on the new possibilities that were available to creating Pop Art.

Roy Lichtenstein was another famous artist in this era, with many of his contributions inspired by comic books and advertisements during. He contributed over 5,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and murals while incorporating everyday objects filled with history and different artistic styles into his pieces. His art was usually created by hand, tracing and altering his sketches through a projector and then adding those patterned dots that so transform his pieces into that famous Pop art style.

One of Lichtenstein’s first pieces is Girl with Ball created in 1961. A fun fact about this piece is that it is actually a picture taken from a hotel in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania that he turned into that comic-book style he loved and encompassed throughout. Lichtenstein used dark lines to outline the image and used color and curved lines to give the woman’s hair texture that gives the illusion her hair may be curly.

Girl with Ball, 1961

Nude Reading, a piece in his created in 1994 and takes part in his later pieces that revolved around nudity. This is a piece of a young lady sitting on her bed simply reading her book. Lichtenstein used a computer to help him create this piece, with dye cut stencil and some of the dots and patterns we see in this image. As mentioned, Lichtenstein took part in many art contributions and his subject approach on nudity began to recreate his earlier pieces in comic-style Pop art.

 

Nude Reading, Roy Lichtenstein

 

Although I never thought I would enjoy a piece involving nudity, even partial, I have to say that “Nude Reading” is one of my favorite pieces in this era. I would really like to own a piece to have in my bedroom. Even though she is nude, the dot pattern is set in a way that drifts your attention away from the concept of nudity and the touch of bright colors are appealing to the eye. It is a perfect balance of patterns, dark lines and color that although would usually break the boundaries of balance, they sit perfectly together in this piece.

Lastly, Romero Britto is a Pop Art creator from Brazil that uses bright colors, geometric parents and textures, along with Disney characters and other animals.  He uses many features from cubism, graffiti and abstract art elements that allow for the continuation of Pop art to expand. His fascination with Pablo Picasso is seen through out many of his pieces and he has really continued on the legacy of Pop Art and it’s freedom to be as silly and adventurous as an artist may choose.

Campbell's Soup

Mona Cat

My Starry Night

 The inspiration from other artists is evident in Britto’s work and he really takes Hamilton’s advice on making Pop Art gimmicky and with bold colors. I love the usage of colors and patterns in his pieces, that give them that child like look. It reminds of creations a child would give their parents and I find it beautiful that he has created his art into a passion, influencing other artist works and even children that may see this and catch the similarities to a piece they have created themselves.

    

References

Richard Hamilton Paintings, bio, ideas. The Art Story. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/hamilton-richard/.

Romero Britto. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.artnet.com/artists/romero-britto/

Roy Lichtenstein: Moma. The Museum of Modern Art. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://www.moma.org/artists/3542.

Tate. (1994, January 01). 'Nude Reading', Roy Lichtenstein, 1994. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-nude-reading-al00375