What is Pop Art?

The birth of pop art in the 1950’s in the United States defines it as a popular movement that was visual in nature, and gave a sense of optimism to the people during the post war era. It reflected the culture of that time centered on pop music and youth culture. Pop art had different styles of painting that characterized the mass-media and mass-culture. Examples of pop art were comic books and advertising. Pop art was regarded as straightforward, fun and colorful.

One of the most famous pop artists during this period was Andy Warhol, where he is noted to create paintings of Campbell’s soup cans, and Marilyn Monroe. Roy Lichtenstein was famous for creating comic strips as his subject. What do they have in common? They all had bright colors and a sense of humor that meant a lot to people. Collage is also another example of a pop art taken from magazines.

What makes pop art appealing to the people was due to the fact that it mirrored how their society was around them. From the portrayal of celebrities, movies, sex, space age, television, and just anything else around us, pop art was fun and humorous to some extent.

Here are some other facts with the development of pop art that seem interesting:

• Pop art essentially started in Britain, but it was the American movement that produced bolder and aggressive pop art movement.

• The perfect picture of what Pop art is generally about can be seen in Andy Warhol’s creations Campbell’s soup.

• The pop art in the United States is due to the reaction against Abstract Expressionism.

• Pop art captured the youth’s music and culture in the 60’s generation.

• Pop art centered on mass-media, mass-production, and mass-culture.

• Before pop art was popularized, artists were creating abstract paintings like lines, circles, and other geometric shapes. Artists got tired from creating abstract paintings, and people did not understand its meaning. Unlike pop art, people understood what they were viewing and just enjoyed the art.

Pop art is a really cool concept of art breaking free from traditional artists. Aside from paintings, pop art can also be printed on shirts, handbags, pillowcases, and wall stickers. It’s something unique and colorful that reflects modernization of arts and gives a whole new different meaning to it. Pop art can be used for decades to come since it never grows old, it has always something different and new to portray, and people never get tired looking and owning something that has pop art in it.

When you observe the world around us, every structure and object is actually created as a work of art. From the way we dress ourselves, being fashionable with the right color and style, depicts our artistic style. From the houses we live in to the architectural structure around us, everything was purely created with an artistic sense of purpose. When we enter someone’s house, the furniture, decoration, painting, vase, to the wallpaper has a sense of artistic flair to make it look appealing in harmony and balance. Face it, without any sense of artistic style in our surroundings, everything around us would be looking drab and simple, and utterly lifeless.

Art from the very beginning portrayed not only how the physical elements of the world look like, but it also mirrored one’s soul, ideas, and expressions. It is God’s gift to man that he be able to express himself to others through his artwork, whether it is a painting or a sculpture. People who appreciate the beauty of artwork can feel the artist’s deepest feelings and emotions, and a bond of understanding and empathy forms. Sometimes, artworks can encourage nationalism and love amongst people. Great works of wonders in the world give citizens a sense of pride, joy, and awe of their accomplishments. It is also a reflection of a country’s heritage and history, giving them a sense of nationalism and identity.

Art is also expressed in the form of poetry and writing. Great famous authors of the world inspired many people to do the impossible like a revolution. Communication and understanding were established between readers and authors about life and death, religion, science, and all other subjects of life. Popular movies at present came from published and well known books from famous authors. Now everyone enjoys watching them. Imagine Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, two of the most popular movies of all time, were both based on books made by Tolkien and Rowling, respectively. There wouldn’t be much of entertainment without these creations.

The study of art, especially in children, develops their creativity and resourcefulness. When they imagine something out of nothing, and draw them on a piece of paper, they put their ideas into reality. These children can become our future inventors of something that is still waiting to be discovered. Imagine Graham Bell who invented the telephone, and the Wright Brothers who thought of the airplane. All of them had an idea that came from their imagination. They made a plan for it, analyzed the functionality, the design, and drew it somewhere on a piece of paper on how it looked like.

The importance of art is tremendous because without it, life on earth wouldn’t be rich in culture and purpose. It is a reflection of who we are and there are no limits on our creativity, talents, and skills to create, develop, and design something that would be of service and purpose to humanity.