8. Want to add more filters? Go back to Effects , click Pop Art , or click FX to select other trendy filters, like the popular Grunge Effect. You can layer on as many filters as you’d like. Remember to tap Apply after each edit.
Pop Art 101: History, Techniques and How to Make It
Pop art, short for popular art, is one of the largest art movements known in history. The famous movement emerged in the 1950s and boomed in the 1960s in America and Britain as artists drew inspiration from commercial and pop culture and created bold pieces that reflected the realities of everyday life. American pop art was highly influenced by American consumer culture, fame and celebrity culture, and postwar culture. The movement began as a revolt against elitism and traditional artistic norms and was a response to the capitalist and consumerism culture in postwar America. It was essentially a cultural revolution aimed to break down social norms and free people from conformity.
Artists turned to Hollywood movies, pop music, comic books, and advertising as a more relatable and influential source for creating pop art. Major contributors to the movement include Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, and Roy Lichtenstein, who’ve created iconic pop art designs deeply embedded into our culture. Many believe Hamilton’s collage “Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?” may have sparked the beginning of the movement in 1956 in London. He described the movement’s characteristics as such: “Pop art is: Popular, Transient, Expendable, Low cost, Mass produced, Young, Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business.”
So, is pop art still relevant today? More than ever. From art exhibitions to merchandise sales, you’ll see pop art thriving all over the world. Artists today continue to incorporate pop art techniques into their designs, including signature graphic effects like saturated colors, strong outlines, dots, and bold cultural statements using everyday objects. Street artists like Banksy have shown pop art influence in their work using similar stencil and graphic design aesthetics. Pop art is still considered highly valuable in today’s market. Andy Warhol’s Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) sold for a whopping $104.5 million in 2013!
Table of Contents
What Is Pop Art?
Pop art took everyday life and everyday objects and made them saturated with colors, bold outlines, and creative overlays. The style’s vibrancy is uniquely incorporated into everyday objects like soup cans, fruits, a pack of gum, and tools, or in media like newspapers, magazines, and comic strips. Pop art made mundane and commonplace objects into extraordinary ones, completely breaking the artistic norms and cultural hierarchy that was in place at the time.
Pop art is instantly recognizable and can be spotted from miles away due to its zest and energetic colors and patterns, infamous imagery from popular media and products, and the innovative artistic techniques that characterized the pop art style. It often used repetition, symbols, overlays, and dots with primary color pallets of bright reds, blues, and yellows. Pop art also incorporated humor and irony which made the pieces so relatable to the masses. Artists used satire to poke fun at trends and fads, and bring light to current events and challenge the current way of life.
American Pop Versus British Pop Culture
Pop art first appeared in England in the mid-’50s and spread to the United States towards the end of the decade. But because there was a heavy American influence in Great Britain at the time, and a lot of the biggest names of the movement were American, there is a strong connection between the movement as it evolved in the US and in England. There are some differences, however.
In the US, pop art uses mundane reality, pop culture, irony, and sarcasm. American pop art was a result of the notion of the American dream. Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol were the most famous American pop artists.
On the other hand, in England, the movement started out with a more academic spin. English pop art was fed by American culture but through a different, more distant lens. The Brits used parody and self-deprecation to denounce the western system of manipulation, which simultaneously affected societal behavior and ushered in great material prosperity. Famous artists in the British pop art movement include Richard Hamilton, Nigel Henderson, and Eduardo Paolozzi.
Make Pop Art like Warhol
Andy Warhol took what we thought we knew about art and turned it on its head. His work makes us ask questions like:
- What is art?
- Who can be an artist?
In the 1960s Andy Warhol became known as one of the leading artists of the pop art movement.
Pop artists felt that art should reflect modern life and so they made art inspired by the world around them – from movies, advertising and pop music to comic books and even product packaging.
Design your own soup can
Warhol was famous for exploring everyday and familiar objects in his work, using brands such as Coca-Cola, Brillo and Campbell’s Soup.
He liked the idea of taking ordinary things, for example cereal or bananas, and turning them into art.
He did this with his famous print of a tomato soup can. He also made a print of every type of soup that Campbell’s made! Including the one above, Black Bean.
Have a go at designing your own! It can be a real soup flavour or an imaginary one!
things to think about
- What ingredients will go in your soup? How does it taste?
- What will it be called?
- Should the can be bright and bold or cool and dark?
- How would it look in the supermarket?
Have a look below at some of the other pop art food and drink that Warhol created.
Left Right
Warhol was very ill as a child, so he spent lots of time in bed. To cheer himself up he read comics and magazines about his favourite characters and movie stars.
One of his most famous screenprints is of the Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. He made lots of prints of her in different colours including this one called Marilyn Diptych. A diptych is when two canvases side by side are part of the same artwork.
Make a selfie artwork
Have a go at making your own artwork like Warhol’s. You can be the celebrity!
- a smartphone or a digital camera
- a printer
- 6 coloured pens or pencils
- paper
1. Take a selfie and print it out six times in black and white
2. On each selfie use just two colouring pencils to colour in your hair, face and eyes
3. Once each selfie is coloured in, cut it out and then stick them on a sheet of paper side by side
How do you look in each selfie now? Which do you like best?
Meet the Artist: Andy Warhol is illustrated by Rose Blake. Available from Tate Shops. Please visit the Tate website with an adult.
