Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | October 2021

Pop Art
Movement
Pop art is an art
movement that emerged
in the United Kingdom and
the United States during
the 1950s. The movement
presented a challenge to traditions
of fine art by including visuals
from popular and mass culture, such
as comic books, advertising and
mundane mass-produced objects.
One of its aims is to use images of
popular culture in art, emphasizing
the banal or kitschy elements of
any culture, most often through the
use of irony. It is also associated
with the artists' use of mechanical
means of reproduction or rendering
techniques.
The importance of pop art is that it
made art accessible to the masses,
not just to the elite. As the style
drew inspiration from commercial
figures and cultural moments, the
work was recognized and respected
among the general public. Finally,
there was an art form that felt not
only pertinent but accessible to
everyone. In some respects, Pop Art
was ‘art for the people’.
Pop art is widely interpreted as
a reaction to the then-dominant
ideas of abstract expressionism,
as well as an expansion of those
ideas. Pop art and minimalism are
considered to be art movements
that precede postmodern art, or are
some of the earliest examples of
postmodern art themselves.
Following the popularity of
the Abstract Expressionists, Pop's
reintroduction of identifiable imagery
was a major shift for the direction
of modernism. The subject matter
became far from traditional "high
Perhaps owing to
the incorporation of
commercial images, Pop
art has become one of
the most recognizable
styles of modern art.
art" themes of morality, mythology,
and classic history; rather, Pop
artists celebrated commonplace
objects and people of everyday
life, in this way seeking to elevate
popular culture to the level of
fine art. Perhaps owing to the
incorporation of commercial images,
Pop art has become one of the most
recognizable styles of modern art.
Pop Art is often characterized
by bold colours, particularly the
primary colours: red, blue and
yellow. The colours were usually
bright and similar to your typical
comic strip palette. These colours
weren’t used to represent the artist’s
inner world or self as they so often
did in previous, classical art forms,
but reflected the vibrant, popular
culture around them.
One of the things that made Pop
Art so unique was the fact that it
chose to focus on such ‘real’ and
relevant subject matter, a decision
which Modernist critics openly
abhorred. Pop Artists blurred the
lines between ‘low’ and ‘high’ art by
bridging the gap between popular
culture and classical art, redefining
the traditional parameters of what
constitutes art and what it means to
be an artist.
Popular Pop artists today include
the likes of Neo-Pop artist Jeff
Koons, the iconic Alex Katz and the
immersive, Japanese visual artist
Yayoi Kusama. Many contemporary
Pop Artists continue to keep the
movement not just alive but
thriving.
- feature@magzoid.com
www.magzoid.com October 2021 41