http://www.zihala.com/pure-artists/
Three Influential Artists of the Pop Art Movement
The three leading artists that make up the era of Pop Art are Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy
Lichtenstein.
The most famous Pop Artist proved to be Andy Warhol. Even though he was not the first artist to start the
Pop Art movement, he was definitely the best known. He successfully integrated commercial printing processes
into his work, distancing himself from the tortured paint surfaces of the Abstract Expressionists that preceded him.
He was the first artist to really bring Pop Art to the public eye with his screen prints of Coke bottles, Campbell’s
soup cans and film stars, which are all part of the iconography of the 20th century. He tried to elevate mechanical
reproduction that allowed him to use endless repetitions of one single work. He employed a small army of
assistants to help him print a single image again and again, distancing his place as the artist from the artistic
process, glorifying famous actresses and Coke bottles with the same fanatical reverence.
Andy Warhol created a silkscreen painting called Ten Lizes in 1963, using Elizabeth Taylor as his subject. When he
made this work, Elizabeth Taylor was at the centre of media attention. Warhol owned around fifty portraits of Liz
Taylor, and decided to use one of them for his work. By making this image public, the artist was inviting a
comparison with the actress’s features before and after the viral pneumonia that had threatened to take her life
in 1961. This glamour portrait from 1959 proves that the photographic record had for once and all immortalized
her at the height of her beauty. Warhol was once again reminding the public of this in his work. He uses the
process of silk-screening, which consists of the mechanical repetition of an image on fabric while reducing it to
its essential outlines. He stripped the pictures of its details so the form acquires a greater visual impact. This
technique derived from the advertising industry for which Warhol had worked, and allowed him to approach his
ideal of objectivity, where perfection would be a matter of identical reproduction. He wanted to have the effect
of separating the image from the meaning attributed to it, preserving only it’s appearance of the pure image.
All the reproductions of Liz Taylor are not identical in any way.
Robert Rauschenberg’s art is very different from Andy Warhol in that he uses complex multimedia works, where
he combined Abstract Expressionist brushwork with both real and depicted objects, pointing out the constructed
nature of both. He created collages out of pre-existing print images, which took on added subtexts of ironic
meanings when assembled together. In the mid 1950′s, he worked on combining collages and montages of mixed
media, and then moved on to ready-made work. In the 1960′s, he returned to painting and silk prints, without
abandoning his love for mixing various materials together.
One of Rauschenberg’s first and most famous combines was called “Monogram” (1959) and consisted of an
unlikely set of materials: a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball and
paint. This style altered the course of modern art. The art of combining and noticing combinations of objects and
images has remained the focus on Rauschenberg’s work. As Pop art emerged in the 1960′s, Rauschenberg moved
away from the three-dimensional art to the two dimensional, using magazine photographs or current events to
silk-screen prints. He put the silkscreen prints onto canvas and overlapped them with painted brushstrokes. They
looked like abstractions from far away, but the images all related to each other up close. These collages were a
way to bring together inventiveness of his combination of different objects with his love of painting. Using this
new method he found he could make a commentary on contemporary society using the very images that helped
to create that society.
Roy Lichtenstein is another artist that is very much different in his style of art from Warhol and Rauschenberg,
in that Lichtenstein liked to enlarge and alter panels from romance and war comics, even copying the small dots
that were the result of the commercial colour separation processes. He used a set of bold, bright colours,
prominent black outlines and patterns of “benday” dots, which he managed to use in his art which made it
uniquely his own. Like most Pop artists, Lichtenstein worked mostly on successive series or themes. Two groups
that he worked on were war comics and romantic tragedies, taken from romance magazines. Both themes had
the same technique where he enlarged it and used the “benday screen” in order to simulate the dots that appear
when one enlarges a printed drawing. A large metal screen was applied to the painting, using it as a stencil. He
also liked to use large printed letters that really stood out clearly. This type of construction enabled him to
create big unified surfaces.
“Hopeless” was one of Lichtenstein’s pieces of art part of his romantic tragedy theme that was created in 1963.
He uses large outlines on the hair and the “benday” method applied on the skin. There are only a few colours,
and the background is a simple blue surface. The text, which is a song, is very short and clear. Lichtenstein also
chose simple titles, mostly words extracted from the balloons or cartouches in comics. The brilliant colours
outlined in the deep black and the simplicity of the text, as well as the size of the painting contributes to an
intense visual impact. Lichtenstein mostly depicted pretty blondes, racked by anguish, sorrow or sadness that
was usually shown by two big tears.
Each of these artists have completely different styles from one another, but each and everyone of them depict a
part of popular culture that is evident in Pop art. The Pop artists achieved quick financial success and soon
assumed high status in art history. It has also had a significant influence on later art and artists, opening the
door for everything from Photorealism to the ironic examination of the everyday that has dominated much
contemporary art. Pop art is among the most important visual arts movements of the 20th century. It is the art
of celebrating everyday objects such as soup cans, washing powder, comic strips, coke bottles and much more.
The movement turned the commonplace into icons.
About the Author
See creative designs and illustrations by Noon Creative that specializes in <a target=”_new” href=”http://www.nooncreative.com”>Graphic Design for Photographers</a>. Have Noon Creative create the perfect design for you. They have created designs for professional photographers such as <a target=”_new” href=”http://www.willpursell.com”>Vancouver wedding photographer</a> Will Pursell
Mackenzie Dayle sings “Meant to Fly” at Pure Artists Concert