Pop Art

Pop Art is a 20th century art movement that utilized the
imagery and techniques of consumerism and popular culture.
Pop art developed in the late1950's as a reaction against
Abstract Expressionism and flourished in the sixties and
early seventies. Pop Art favored figural imagery and the
reproduction of everyday objects, such as Campbell Soup
cans, comic strips and advertisements. The movement
eliminated distinctions between "good" and "bad" taste and
between fine art and commercial art techniques. 

Pop Art developed primarily in the United States and
Britain. In the US, it was linked to the wealth and
prosperity of the post World War II era, and artists of the
movement responded to the nation's consumer society. Pop
Art in Britain was less
 brash, and had a more nostalgic flavor. 
 
Richard Hamilton's famous work," Just What Is It that Makes
Today's Home so Different, so Appealing?", is considered by
many to be the first Pop piece because of its many
references to popular culture and consumerism. Jasper Johns
and Robert Rauschenberg were some of the first Pop artists
in America, and used popular imagery such as the American
flag and beer cans in their paintings, prints, collages and
"combines". Andy Warhol is known for his silk-screens of
both famous people and everyday objects, while Roy
Lichtenstein employed a comic strip illustrative style in
his paintings. The leading Pop artists in Britain included
David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, and Allen Jones. 

I chose to describe an art work called " As I Opened Fire",
by Roy Lichtenstein. It was created in 1964 and is the
third of three panels in a narrative arrangement. " As I
Opened Fire" is magna on a canvas which is 68 X 56. Its
composition is reminiscent of a comic book. It shows 2 guns
firing from the side of a ship, with letters on the top
saying "That my ship was below them..." The color scheme
was very interesting. For background, Lichtenstein used
gray-blue. For the guns he used white, gray, and black,
giving them a three-dimensional look. For the fire (coming
out of the guns) he used white, orange, and red, making use
of complementary colors. The mood is aggressive and
warlike, in some way indicating that the ship was part of a
surprise attack on an enemy. This picture is similar to
comic book art, in both mood and composition. 

It is a moot point as to whether the most extraordinary
innovation of 20th-century art was Cubism or Pop Art. Both
arose from a rebellion against an accepted style: the
Cubists thought Post-Impressionist artists were too tame
and limited, while Pop Artists thought the Abstract
Expressionists pretentious and over-intense. 

brought art back to the material realities of everyday life, to popular culture (hence ("pop"), in which ordinary people derived most of their visual pleasure from television, magazines, or comics.