Basic Knowledge On Pop Art Paintings
By Ispas Marin, Sat Dec 10th

Pop art was an art movement that initially occurred in theUnited States of America in the early sixties. The epicenter ofthis art phenomenon was New York, the city confirming its trendsetting leader position. Although this movement strongly eruptedin the early sixties, the attempts of change started during thelate fifties in the work of Robert Rauschenberg and JasperJohns. These painters wanted to replace the abstract mode ofartistic expression, aiming at making the art's message easierto be understood by the public. The first pop art paintingscontained easy to recognize images of common items. The purposeof incorporating these objects was to mock the gravity, themetaphysical dullness of abstract expressionism that had startedto become out of fashion. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenbergintroduced amusing objects into the first pop art paintings:flags, maps and targets or stuffed animals and rubber tyres forthe latter artist. The pop art movement become famously knownfor their main feature: mockery and irony.

Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist Andy Warhol and RoyLichtenstein were the most representative artists for this newart stream. Their pop art paintings were characterized by theiroriginal display of popular culture's symbols: advertisements,media images or even comic strips. These new, colorful,

livelypop art paintings were strikingly opposing the gravity, thespirituality of abstract expressionism. Consequently, thesekinds of pop art paintings become very popular among the artloving public and among the art critics community. But theabstract expressionism continued to be highly appreciated,despite the pop art paintings' mockery.

Although the pop art movement was popular and influential itproved to lack the strength of completely supplant the abstractexpressionism, but it determined the birth of two new schools ofabstraction: color-field painting and minimalist art. Thecolor-field painting movement (mainly represented by painterHelen Frankenthaler) minimized the influence of abstractexpressionism's old features into a style completely committedto the use of pure color.

The American art of the sixties remained in the art historybooks as a period of constant rivalries between differentcompeting styles and ideas. Yet, the pop art paintingsrepresented best the ideas and the symbols of the Americanlifestyle in the sixties.

About the author:Pop art paintinggallery, framed art and UK online art gallery.