¶ … pop art does not refer to a specific style of work as much as it does to its social and chronological context. However, the evolution of pop art in the United States and Europe reveals some aesthetic patterns and trends distinguishing pop art from other genres. The term pop art first came into use during the 1950s, when Lawrence Alloway noted that the visual arts became increasingly reflective of consumer and popular culture ("Le Pop Art"). One of the defining features of pop art would become its satirical or ironic perspective on popular culture. Osterwold also notes that pop art represented an unprescedented confluence of life and art (p. 6).
Perhaps nowhere is the confluence of life and art more noticeable than in the works of Andy Warhol and especially in his paintings of American consumer products like the Campell's soup cans. What makes Warhol's message so powerful is not only the exploitation of consumer goods but also the methods by which the artist produced his works. Warhol used mass production techniques like silk screening to mimic the mass production of consumer goods. Therefore, Warhol offers a visual juxtaposition of capitalism and the arts.
Richard Hamilton used multimedia, collage, and three-dimensional objects in his work to capture the essence of popular culture. Hamilton's collage "Just What is it that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?" is a seminal piece of pop art, offering subtle critique of the American Dream, of typical gender roles, and of consumerism. Robert Rauchenberg's work, like Hamilton's, uses multimedia to convey the infiltration of materialism into popular culture.
Jasper Johns' work appears more directly political, based on his liberal use of the American flag and similar iconography in painting. Johns' incorporation of American nationalism into the pop art equation adds a special nuance to the genre, revealing searing and satirical political undertones. Johns suggests that former symbols of national conscience have become misappropriated, downgraded to consumer emblems. The use of the flag and American map in his art also shows how American culture and business became linked during the twentieth century.
Reference
"Le Pop Art." Centre Pompidou. Retrieved Aug 8, 2008 from http://www.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ens-popart-en/ens-popart-en.htm
Osterwold, T. Pop Art. Taschen, 2003.
