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The artwork you’ll be viewing today spans the period from 1956 to 1999. It is primarily centered around two key locations: London, England, where Richard Hamilton was active, and New York City, where the artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg made their mark.
Pop art challenges the elitist perception of art by incorporating cultural icons, advertisements, cartoons, and comic imagery drawn from mass media. Its roots can be traced to the 1950s in Great Britain, with the Independent Group—a collective of artists, architects, and writers—playing a pivotal role. Richard Hamilton, a key member of this group, significantly contributed to the movement’s development.
Although primarily a painter, Hamilton is perhaps best remembered for his collage entitled Just What Is It That Makes Yesterday’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?
View Just What Is It That Makes Yesterday’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?.
Richard Hamilton sourced images from American magazines to create this composition, which he showcased at the 1956 art exhibition This Is Tomorrow in England. The work is a curated collection of magazine clippings that both recognize and celebrate the pop culture and modernity of the era. At the same time, it marks a departure from the avant-garde art theories championed by the critic Clement Greenberg, who emphasized formalism and abstraction.
Notice the rug in Hamilton’s collage. The nonrepresentational black-and-white splatter pattern is clearly meant to recall the works of Jackson Pollock, undermining the cerebral nature of Abstract Expressionism. Hamilton’s work also draws significant inspiration from the Dada movement, particularly the collage techniques of Hanna Höch and the concept of the “readymade” popularized by Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp’s idea of transforming found objects into art is echoed in Hamilton’s approach, where everyday imagery from mass media is repurposed to create something entirely new, blurring the lines between high art and popular culture.
Pop art and Andy Warhol are synonymous in the public imagination. Warhol is arguably the most famous figure of this movement and one of the most iconic American artists of the 20th century. Like other Pop artists, Warhol used his work to challenge the exclusivity and elitism of high art, particularly targeting Abstract Expressionism and the theories of the art critic Clement Greenberg, who sought to distinguish between high art and popular culture in his influential 1939 essay entitled Avant-Garde and Kitsch.
One of his most iconic subjects was Marilyn Monroe, a widely beloved celebrity who tragically died of a drug overdose in 1962. Deeply influenced by her stardom and untimely death, Warhol created a series of works that immortalized Monroe’s image, capturing the tension between her glamorous public persona and the fragility of her life. The following work of art was completed shortly after her death, reflecting Warhol’s fascination with celebrity culture and the transient nature of fame.
A diptych is a work of art divided into two sections or panels, typically hinged together, allowing them to be opened and closed like a book. In Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych, the two panels are not physically hinged but are conceptually linked.
It features multiple repetitions of a single image of Marilyn Monroe, with the left side rendered in vibrant, bright colors, while the right side gradually transitions to black and white, eventually fading into nothingness. This composition, created soon after her death, likely symbolizes the duality of Monroe’s life. On one hand, the vivid, colorful side reflects her public persona—radiant, glamorous, and full of life—while on the other, the monochromatic and fading side suggests the darker reality of her personal struggles, which ultimately led to her tragic demise. Marilyn Diptych poignantly captures the contrast between the dazzling image of a Hollywood icon and the fleeting, often harsh, reality behind the facade, representing two sides of the same coin.
Despite his immense popularity and iconic status, Andy Warhol remained deeply connected to the cultural and social values he absorbed during his upbringing in the Great Depression. This period of economic hardship profoundly influenced his perspective, grounding his art in the everyday experiences and consumer culture that shaped American life. One of his most famous images, which exemplifies this connection, features one of the most recognizable and iconic brands in America: Campbell’s soup. This image, like much of Warhol’s work, reflects his fascination with mass production, consumerism, and the mundane objects that had become symbols of American identity.
View Campbell’s Soup Can I.
Warhol often had Campbell’s soup for lunch, and the brand became a staple in his life, representing comfort and consistency. By choosing this subject, Warhol tapped into the shared experience of many Americans who were familiar with the ubiquitous red-and-white label that had become a symbol of postwar American consumerism.
Moreover, Warhol’s work is a commentary on the pervasive influence of advertising and branding in American society. The repetition of the soup cans mimics the way products are displayed in supermarkets, emphasizing the commodification of everyday life.
With Campbell’s Soup Can, Warhol also employed a nontraditional and commercial method of art making. By using the silk screen process, Warhol eliminated the handmade aspect of painting in favor of mechanical reproduction based on a stencil. In this instance, the medium of the work underscores its meaning.
Warhol himself said that he wanted to be a “machine” in his process of making art, reflecting the mechanized production of consumer goods. Therefore, Warhol’s soup can is both a celebration of American culture and a critique of its obsession with consumption, uniformity, and convenience.
While Warhol immortalized individual icons of American culture, Lichtenstein immortalized the broader genre of comic books, transforming it into a subject of serious artistic inquiry. He faithfully replicated the distinctive features of comic book art, including the use of bold lines, vibrant primary colors, and most famously, Ben-Day dots—a printing technique used in comics to create shading and texture with small, colored dots. This technique became a hallmark of Lichtenstein’s style, emphasizing the mechanical, mass-produced nature of comic book art while also highlighting its visual appeal.
View Drowning Girl.
By adopting the visual tropes of comic books, Lichtenstein not only paid homage to this widely consumed form of entertainment but also commented on the nature of art, originality, and mass production. His works often depict melodramatic scenes from romance or war comics, filled with exaggerated emotions and clichéd dialogues, as seen here in Drowning Girl. These images, while seemingly simple, are layered with cliché, melodrama, pathos, and absurdity as Lichtenstein both celebrates and satirizes the over-the-top dramatics and simplified visual language of comics.
Claes Oldenburg is a Pop artist known for his sculptural works. His sculpture Typewriter Eraser, Scale X exemplifies his fascination with everyday objects, elevating them to the status of art by transforming them into large-scale, visually striking pieces. This work reflects Oldenburg’s interest in highlighting the significance of mundane items that often go unnoticed in daily life.
View Typewriter Eraser, Scale X.
Like other Pop artists, he was challenging previous notions of art. Within sculpture, he was challenging the idea that public works of art were limited to historical figures or events. His image of a giant, falling eraser instead commemorates an object of interest from his childhood and immortalizes an object that would typically be forgotten or even discarded.
Source: THIS TUTORIAL WAS AUTHORED BY IAN MCCONNELL AND TAMORA KOWALSKI FOR SOPHIA LEARNING. PLEASE SEE OUR TERMS OF USE.
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