Pop Art was an artistic movement that emerged in the 1950s in the Great Britain and the United States. In Great Britain, a group of young artists and critics, who called themselves Independent Group, started having meetings in the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. The meetings took place from around 1952 till 1958. Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi were one of the members. Independent Group discussed mass culture, advertisements, Sci-if, celebrities, pop music. In Pop Art anything can subject can be depicted and there is no say in what can and cannot be art. They started making collages using objects from everyday life, like cutouts, ads, product labels. Most critics at the time were not favouring this new type of art style.
American artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg were among the first artists to oppose the dominance of abstract expressionism. Rauschenberg drew inspiration from Dadaism movement. He believed that art should be closely tied to everyday life. He often used discarded everyday objects in his works. He is most known for his depictions of the American flag. In the 50’s they were called Neo-Dadaists. Roy Liechtenstein is one of the most notable 1960’s American Pop Art artists. His work is heavily inspired by popular American comic books. In his work, Liechtenstein used thick black outlines, primary colours, Ben Day dots, and ironic speech bubbles. Most of his works were meticulously painted with oils on canvas. Although, around 1962 he started using screen printing in his works. This technique allowed for numerous copies of the same image to be printed on paper or on canvas. He was obsessed with celebrity culture, this reflects on his works, as a lot of them depict famous figures at the time.
Fionna Fernandes is a Sydney-based illustrator. Takes inspiration from Lisa Frank, Super Mario and My Little Pony, as well as 90s Japanese culture, andthe artists Laura Callaghan, Hattie Stewart and Georgia Perry. Fionna’s work combines hand-drawn line work and acrylic paints with digital colouring. She often creates collaged backdrops, adding stickers to the compositions to enhance that mixed media feel.
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Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Art pop. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_pop. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2019). Pop art | Characteristics, Facts, & Artists. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/Pop-art. Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Pop art. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art. The Art Story (2012). Pop Art Movement Overview. [online] The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/. ThoughtCo. (2018). Explore the World of Pop Art. [online] Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/pop-art-art-history-183310.