The Birth of Pop

The Independent Group, Neo-Dada, and Pop

Pop Art (1960s)

• Pop Art as it has come to be identified is primarily associated with American art.

• Its origins, however, lie in postwar London and the Independent Group or IG.

• The term “Pop” was first published in 1958 by English critic, Lawrence Alloway.

• Alloway, who was associated with the group, would move to the U.S. and become a leading critic in the art world.

Andy Warhol, Untitled (Pink Marilyn), 1967. One from a portfolio of ten

screenprints. Silkscreen, 36” x 36”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

The Independent Group

The Independent Group (1952-1955)• The Independent Group or IG as it became known was a small group

of artists (painters and sculptors), architects, writers, and critics who gathered at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.

• The group gathered to debate modernist paradigm.– The focus was on popular culture, thus the term “Pop.”

• They were particularly fascinated with American culture, its fast pace and car culture.

• The group was in part interested in the contrast between American and European postwar culture.– Americans experienced great prosperity after the war while most

European nations, Britain included, experienced great hardship.– The abundance of luxury items, Hollywood culture, etc. became a central

focus of the group.• Their work is not exclusively a condemnation of popular culture. It is

an attempt to alert people about how mass culture is communicated and manipulated to an often unsuspecting public audience.

The Independent Group (1952-1955)

“Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous and Big Business”.

-Richard Hamilton, 1957 Richard Hamilton, Just What is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing, 1956.

Collage on paper, 10 ¼” x 9 ¾”. Kunsthalle Tübingen, Sammlung Zundel.

The Independent Group (1952-1955)Richard Hamilton (b. 1922)• Amongst the IG was artist,

Richard Hamilton.• Hamilton’s work, Just What is it

that makes today’s home so different, so appealing, has become an iconic representation of English Pop art.

• This piece, originally created as a poster advertising a 1956 group exhibition, “This is Tomorrow” encapsulates everything American that interested the IG.

Richard Hamilton, Just What is it that makes today’s home so different, so

appealing, 1956. Collage on paper, 10 ¼” x 9 ¾”. Kunsthalle Tübingen, Sammlung

Zundel.

The Independent Group (1952-1955)

Richard Hamilton (b. 1922)

• Hamilton is a descendant of Duchampian Dada, a noted scholar on the subject, he embraced Duchamp and the artist’s influence is undeniable. Richard Hamilton, Just What is it that

makes today’s home so different, so appealing, 1956. Collage on paper, 10 ¼” x

9 ¾”. Kunsthalle Tübingen, Sammlung Zundel.

The Independent Group (1952-1955)Richard Hamilton (b. 1922)• Owing something to the Cubist technique

of collage, Hamilton gathers together imagery of modern American culture to paint an American apartment fit for the American “Adam and Eve” that inhabit it.

• Hamilton includes iconic imagery that defines modern American culture-the Ford emblem, a T.V., movie posters, early recording device, a Pollock-style rug (actually a high focus photograph of bodies on a beach), and a scantily-clad couple.

• The movement is identified by the strategic placement of the Tootsie Pop lollipop near the man’s groin.

• The image painted is one of decadence.

Richard Hamilton, Just What is it that makes today’s home so different, so

appealing, 1956. Collage on paper, 10 ¼” x 9 ¾”. Kunsthalle Tübingen, Sammlung

Zundel.

The Independent Group (1952-1955)

Richard Hamilton (b. 1922)• The 1960s had Hamilton

experimenting with the medium of photography.

• His piece I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, addresses the “high art” vs. “low art” debate critics, including Clement Greenberg were engaged in at the time. Richard Hamilton, I’m Dreaming of a White

Christmas, 1967-1968. Screenprint, Sheet 30 ¼” x 40 15/16”. Museum of Modern

Art, NY.

The Independent Group (1952-1955)Richard Hamilton (b. 1922)• In I’m Dreaming of a White

Christmas, Hamilton alters the development process to give Bing Crosby, the main character, darker skin.

• The result has racial implications when one considers the time in which it was produced-in both the U.K. and American, people of color were beginning to fight for equal representation, Hamilton’s work is an interesting commentary on race in 1960s America.

Richard Hamilton, I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas, 1967-1968. Screenprint, Sheet

30 ¼” x 40 15/16”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

British Pop ArtDavid Hockney (b. 1937)• British artist David Hockney is

considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

• Hockney was schooled under IG artist Kitaj (1932-2007) and together with Peter Blake (b.1932) was featured in the Young Contemporaries exhibition, a show that announced the arrival of British Pop art.

• Works like, A Bigger Splash, demonstrate the artist’s application of Mattisean design-the flat-patterning of the water and blacks of color.

David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967. Acrylic on canvas, 8’ 1/8” x 8’ 1/8”. Tate,

London.

British Pop ArtDavid Hockney (b. 1937)• Hockney’s work, unlike most Pop

artists, is autobiographical.• His paintings focus on his

personal life-spending time with friends, his lifestyle, and possessions.

• Stylistically, he takes inspiration from Matisse, Picasso, and Dubuffet.

• He enjoyed considerable notoriety before completing his studies and his popularity continues today.

• His work is particularly popular in the CA art scene.

David Hockney, A Visit with Christopher and Don, Santa Monica Canyon, 1984. Oil on canvas, 6’ x 20’. Collection of the artist.

Neo-Dada

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)• The term Neo-Dada refers primarily to

artists Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) and Jasper Johns (b.1930).

• It is a term that was popularized by the writings of Barbara Rose in the 1960s.

• Ne-Dada artists share an affinity with earlier Dada artists and retained the image in painting much like artist Willem de Kooning had in his Abstract Expressionist paintings.

• Neo-Dada artists were contemporaries of the NY School but differed in visual aesthetic ,ideological belief, and lifestyle.

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52. Oil on canvas, 6’3 ⅞” x 4’10”.

Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Robert Rauschenberg(1925-2008)• Untitled (1950), demonstrates

Rauschenberg’s early experimentation with camera-less photography.

• The photographic process was usually involved in some aspect of his artistic production.

• Working with his then wife, artist Susan Weil, Rauschenberg placed objects, sometimes bodies on light reactive paper.– After exposing the paper to light, the

unexposed areas record an image.Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil, Untitled (Double Rauschenberg), c. 1950. Monoprint exposed blueprint

paper, 8’9” x 3’. Collection Cy Twombly, Rome.

• Rauschenberg is not the first to experiment with camera-less photography.

• Dada and Surrealist artist, Man Ray, also explored a similar process in his rayorgraphs from the early 20th century.

Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil, Untitled (Double Rauschenberg), c. 1950.

Monoprint exposed blueprint paper, 8’9” x 3’. Collection Cy Twombly, Rome.

Man Ray, Untitled (Rayograph), 1922; Gelatin silver print, 11 15/16” x 9 3/8”. San Francisco

Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

"Painting relates to both art and life.I try to act in that gap between the two."

-Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955. Combine painting: oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports,

75 ¼” x 31 ½” 8”. Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• Created in 1953, Rauschenberg’s Erased

de Kooning makes visual what he and other Neo-Dada artists set out to accomplish namely to challenge the art establishment, to question conventional aesthetics as well as the modern aesthetics as established by Abstract Expressionist artists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

• Like its namesake, Dada art, Neo-Dada art embraces chance in its unconventional juxtaposition of objects with no previous relation.

• Like its successor, Pop art, Neo-Dadaism make use of the absurd, of popular modern media, and contrasts.

Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning, 1953. Traces of ink and crayon on paper,

with mount and hand-lettered ink by Jasper Johns, 25.5” x 21.8” x 0.5”. San

Francisco Museum of Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• To secure a work of de

Kooning’s to erase, Rauschenberg knocked on the artist’s door and asked.

• The significance of the work being a de Kooning, an artist well-known and established within the art community, is that Rauschenberg was erasing what had already been accepted as art.

Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning, 1953. Traces of ink and crayon on paper,

with mount and hand-lettered ink by Jasper Johns, 25.5” x 21.8” x 0.5”. San

Francisco Museum of Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• After attending the Académie Julian, Paris with

his former wife, Susan Weil, Rauschenberg transferred to the experimental college in North Carolina, Black Mountain College.

• Active from 1933-1957, Black Mountain College attracted some of the art world’s most avant-garde artists and minds.– Teachers/Lecturers include Clement Greenberg,

Willem and Elaine de Kooning, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Jacob Lawrence, Robert Motherwell, Albert Einstein, William Carolos Williams-it was a veritable who’s who of the greatest minds of the 20th century.

– Rauschenberg studied with Josef Albers, the influential abstract painter.

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955. Combine painting: oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports,

75 ¼” x 31 ½” 8”. Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• Rauschenberg’s Bed from 1955 is

just that-the artist’s bed. – Faced with the reality that he

had no canvas left to paint on, the artist turned to his bed sheets and they became his canvas.

• Bed represents a type of collage Rauschenberg introduced to the art world called, combine painting.Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955. Combine painting: oil

and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports, 75 ¼” x 31 ½” 8”. Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• Bed is an interesting mix of Dada use of

found object with the gestural brushwork of Abstract Expressionism.

• Many scholars read the piece as a commentary on low art vs. fine art with the quilt referencing what has traditionally been classified as craft and the gesture representing the abstract styling of Abstract Expressionism.– Interestingly, the quilt-long regarded as craft

and women’s art demonstrates an abstract quality present and outside of canonical influence.

– Other scholars read Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955. Combine painting: oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports,

75 ¼” x 31 ½” 8”. Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• Scholars treat Bed in varoius ways.

– Some focus on the quilt-long regarded as craft and women’s art, the quilt demonstrates an abstract quality present outside of canonical influence.

– Other scholars read significance into the bed itself.

• As a gay man in the 1950s, Rauschenberg was faced with the dominant personalities of artists like Pollock, traits he did not share (in terms of lifestyle and ideology).

• Bed has thus been read by some scholars to be a statement about his gay lifestyle.

– He has taken his bed, which he possibly shared with then partner artist Jasper Johns, and not only consecrated their relationship, but lifestyle, and aesthetic .

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955. Combine painting: oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports,

75 ¼” x 31 ½” 8”. Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

“As beautiful as the chance encounter of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table”

-Lautréamont

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955-59. Freestanding combine (mixed media: Oil, printed

paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber heel and tennis ball on canvas, with oil

on angora goat and tyre on wooden base mounted on four casters), 42” x 63.2” x

64.5”.Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)Robert Rauschenberg(1925-2008)

• Rauschenberg focused on his combine paintings from approximately 1953 to 1964.– These are like modernized versions of

Duchamp’s readymades.

• One of his best known is Monogram. – Monogram features an angora goat the

artist passed everyday in the window of a second-hand shop.

– It is juxtaposed with a tire, set on a canvas and placed on a wooden base.

– Like his Bed, Rauschenberg does not abandon the gestural brushstroke associated with Abstract Expressionism.

– His odd pairing of unrelated objects, much like Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) asserts the creative vision of the artist.

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955-59. Freestanding combine (mixed media: oil, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber heel and tennis ball

on canvas, with oil on angora goat and tire on wooden base mounted on four casters),

42” x 63.2” x 64.5”.Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

• Rauschenberg’s odd pairing of unrelated objects, much like Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) asserts the creative vision of the artist.

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955-59. Freestanding combine (mixed media: oil, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber heel and tennis ball

on canvas, with oil on angora goat and tire on wooden base mounted on four casters),

42” x 63.2” x 64.5”.Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

The original Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz at 291 after the 1917 Society of Independent Artists

exhibit. In the background is Marsden Hartley’s The Warriors.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)• Another example of

Rauschenberg’s combine paintings, Odalisk appropriates a subject made popular in the Romantic paintings and modernizes it.

• Rauschenberg’s combines inject the everyday into the art for art’s sake aesthetic.

Robert Rauschenberg, Odalisk, 1955-1958 Freestanding combine. Oil, watercolor, crayon, pastel, paper,

fabric, photographs, printed reproductions, newspaper, metal,

glass, pillow, wooden post and lamps on wooden structure with stuffed

rooster, 83” x 25.2” x 27.1”. Menil Collection, Houston, TX.

Robert Rauschenberg, Odalisk, 1955-1958 Freestanding combine. Oil, watercolor, crayon, pastel, paper, fabric,

photographs, printed reproductions, newspaper, metal, glass, pillow, wooden post and lamps on wooden

structure with stuffed rooster, 83” x 25.2” x 27.1”. Menil Collection, Houston, TX.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque, 1814. Oil on canvas, 36” x 64”. Musée du Louvre, Paris

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Jasper Johns (b. 1930)• Johns work addresses the neutrality

of space in a painting.• He takes as subject the mundane-

the American flag, numbers and letters, the map of the U.S. , and targets.

• By honing in on the image, he destroys the neutrality of the space between viewer and object making it difficult for the audience to ascertain if it is looking at a representation of the thing or the thing itself.

• At the root of Johns’ work is the question of representation itself.

Jasper Johns, Flag. 1954–55. Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on

plywood (three panels), 42 1/4 x 60 5/8”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

• Johns’ debate on the nature of representation shares much with Surrealist painter, René Magritte’s Perfidy of Images, 1928-9.

Jasper Johns, Flag. 1954–55. Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood

(three panels), 42 1/4 x 60 5/8”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

René Magritte, The Treachery (or Perfidy) of Images, 1928-29. Oil on canvas, 23 ¼” x 31 ½”. Los Angeles

County Museum of Art, CA.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

• This image illustrates Johns' early technique of painting with encaustic (pigment usually mixed with beeswax) over a collage made from found materials such as newspaper. This rough method of construction is rarely visible in photographic reproductions of his work.

• The encaustic technique is one used by ancient cultures, like the Egyptians, but lost throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods. It was popularized again by artists like Johns in the mid 20th century.

Jasper Johns, Flag (detail ). 1954–55. Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood (three panels), 42

1/4 x 60 5/8”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

• Reflecting on his choice of easily recognizable images, Johns said that he was interested in "the idea of knowing an image rather than just seeing it out of the corner of your eye.”

• The map of the United States, in its ubiquity and iconicity, is "seen and not looked at, not examined." Preserving the overall proportions of the country and the shape of its states, Johns' energetic application of paint subverts the conventions of cartography, as do the stenciled names of states, such as Colorado, which is repeated in several locations. Map invites close inspection because its content is both familiar and imaginary. Jasper Johns, Map, 1961. Oil on canvas, 6'

6" x 10' 3 1/8”. Museum of Modern Art.

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Neo-Dada (mid 1950s-1960s)

Jasper Johns (b. 1930)• One of Johns’ more comical pieces is his

Painting with Two Balls, 1960.– The painting consists of a canvas decorated

with gestural brushstrokes in the style of Abstract Expressionism.

– Inserted in between the space of the canvases are two balls.

– Scholars approach this piece as a witty poke at the process of artists like Pollock who were often described as ejaculating onto their canvas.

– Painting with Two Balls asserts the identity of the artist and answers criticism of those who argue a successful artist has to paint with balls.

Jasper Johns, Painitng with Two Balls, 1960. Encaustic and collage on canvas with wood construction

and plaster casts. 66” x 54”. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Happenings

“A Happening, unlike a stage play, may occur at a supermarket, driving along a highway, under a pile of rags, and in a friend’s kitchen, either at once or sequentially. If sequentially, time may extend to more than a year. The Happening is performed according to plan but without rehearsal, audience, or repetition. It is art but seems closer to life.”

-Allan Kaprow

Allan Kaprow, Photograph from Household, a Happening, 1964.

Commissioned by Cornell University.

HappeningsAllan Kaprow (1927-2006)• Kaprow wore many hats during his long

art career.– He was a painter, assemblage artists, pioneer

in performance art, critic, and teacher.

• His 1958 essay, “The Legacy of Jackson Pollock,” helped to establish performance as a viable successor to Pollock’s performative painting process.

• Kaprow is best known for his Happenings-what can best be described as the early precursor to what we refer to today as “Pop-ups” or “Flash mobs.”

• Kaprow’s contribution was the importance of mixing media and allowing it to engulf the audience.

• The advent of Happenings predate even Dada and can trace its roots to the Futurist movement.

Allan Kaprow, Photograph from Household, a Happening, 1964. Commissioned by Cornell

University.

HappeningsAllan Kaprow (1927-2006)• Scholars debate the location of

the first Happening.– Traditionally, it has been cited

as having occurred at Rutgers University, where the artist was a professor.

– Other possible locations are Black Mountain College where Merce Cunningham and John Cage (a teacher of Kaprow) performed what Kaprow would later dub Happenings.

Allan Kaprow, Photograph from Household, a Happening, 1964. Commissioned by Cornell

University.

American Pop Art

American Pop Art• American Pop Art is represented best in the work of Andy Warhol and Roy

Lichtenstein.• American Pop artists have no one unique style.• The unifying factors in their work are that they draw inspiration fro popular

culture, elevate unconventional media questioning the divide between low art and high art, comment on the commodification of art, and capitalize on all of the above.

• Pop artists experiment with medium and technique and employ conceptualist-based theory much indebted to Duchampian Dada.– They question the nature of art, the role of the artist and audience, and the division of

reality and fantasy-the real life and art.– Like their British contemporaries, they question consumer culture and employ its

vocabulary in their art.– American Pop artists are heavily invested in the mundane in effort to elevate the every-

man and the ordinary.

American Pop ArtRoy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)• Lichtenstein is best known for his

comic-style paintings.• Lichtenstein took this as

personal style after asked by his son to draw him a Mickey Mouse.

• Lichtenstein’s comic style has garnered criticism from art literati and comic artists alike.– Art critics rejected his elevation of

popular medium-the comic book, to the level of high art.

– Comic artists question his sincerity as an artist who has usurped a medium with its own traditions.

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! , 1963. Oil and Magna (crayon) on two canvas panels, 5’ 8” x 13’

4”. Tate, London.

• Lichtenstein’s technique is successor to Seurat’s pointillism.

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! , 1963. Oil and Magna (crayon) on two canvas panels, 5’ 8” x 13’

4”. Tate, London.

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-86. Oil on

canvas, 6’9 ½” x 10’ 1 ¼”. The Art Institute of Chicago.

• And predecessor to the pixilation of Chuck Close

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! , 1963. Oil and Magna (crayon) on two canvas panels, 5’ 8” x 13’

4”. Tate, London.

Chuck Close, Lucas, 1986–1987. Oil and pencil on canvas, 100” x 84”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Detail at right of

eye.

American Pop ArtRoy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)• Much like Jasper John’s Painting with

Two Balls, Lichtensetin’s Big Painting takes a satirical look at the gestural brushstroke of Abstract Expressionism.

• The artist, like Kline before him, enlarges the stroke magnifying it so that the naked eye can see the fine details.

• The large scale pokes an amusing comment at the nature of the more-than-not, larger than life-size personalities of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism.

• In the end, he composes a very carefully choreographed reproduction of the spontaneous brushwork that made Abstract Expressionism famous.

Roy Lichtenstein, Big Painting No. 6, 1965. Oil and Magna on canvas, 7’8” x 10’ 9”. Kunstsammlung

Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

American Pop ArtAndy Warhol (1928-1987)• Warhol works within

the vocabulary of the everyman.

• His subject matter is taken from pop culture of movies, magazines, supermarkets, and police bulletins. Andy Warhol, 210 Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962.

Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 6’ 10 ½” x 8’ 9”. Collection Martin

and Janet Blinder.

American Pop Art

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)• Best known of American

Pop artists is artist Andy Warhol.

• Warhol represents the epitome of the Pop artist-literally becoming his best work.

Andy Warhol, 210 Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962. Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 6’ 10 ½” x 8’ 9”. Collection Martin

and Janet Blinder.

American Pop ArtAndy Warhol (1928-1987)• Like many other Pop artists,

Warhol worked commercially illustrating cook books and shoe advertisements before making it on the art scene.

• Like Lichtenstein, Warhol painted the imagery and characters from comic strips but soon focused on the commonplace items found in the food store, television commercials, and advertisements.

• He is best known for his Coke bottles, Campbell’s Coup Cans, Brillo Boxes, and images of iconic personalities-Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Andy Warhol, 32 Campbell's Soup Cans, 1961. Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, each canvas 20” x 16″. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

American Pop ArtAndy Warhol (1928-1987)• Believing the artist was a machine,

Warhol introduced the process of serigraphy to his work thus allowing the artist to mass produce his images and out-source its production.

• Warhol arranged his images in multiples thus questioning the authenticity of the art object in a fashion similar to Macel Duchamp and his reproduction of his readymades.

• Warhol exhibited works including his 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans, Coke Bottles, and Brillo Boxes in ways that mimic grocery store displays-even showing some of his Brillo Boxes in a show dubbed, The American Supermarket where the gallery was designed like a market and the work of 6 artists on display.

Andy Warhol, 32 Campbell's Soup Cans, 1961. Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, each canvas 20” x 16″. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

American Pop Art

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)• His iconic images of

personalities like Marilyn Monroe investigate the cult of celebrity.

• Warhol believed and commented that in the future everyone would be famous for 15 minutes.– These works explore the

nature of that fame. Andy Warhol, Golden Marilyn, 1962. Silkscreen ink, Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on

canvas, 71.25” x 57”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

• Warhol takes as his model religious icons such as the Virgin of Vladimir, a working icon to this day.

• From the Byzantine icon Warhol takes the golden background which guides and allows the viewer to focus on the image represented.

• The background also transports the figure presented to another dimension, another space other than the one occupied by the viewer.

• It is a commentary on who our modern society worships and questioning of the nature of representation-the figure painted in Golden Marilyn is a representation of a personality created by the movie industry for consumption by the American public. Marilyn did not exist it was a role played by Norma Jean Mortensen Baker.

Andy Warhol, Golden Marilyn, 1962.

Silkscreen ink, Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint

on canvas, 71.25” x 57”. Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Theotokos of Vladimir, c.1080-1185. Tempera on panel,

height, ` 31”. Tretyakov Gallery Moscow.

American Pop Art

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)• Throughout his career Warhol

experimented with many media namely painting, photography, film, and sculpture.

• He created several series during his career and even collaborated with artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat

Andy Warhol, Still from Empire, 1964. Silent film, 485 minutes long. Andy Warhol

Museum, Pittsburgh.

American Pop ArtAndy Warhol (1928-1987)• His Disaster series looked no

further than police files and newspaper clippings and included the morbid imagery of deadly car accidents, police brutality of civil rights activists, and American’s morbid fascination.

• Little Electric Chair, shown singly or in multiple, makes comment on how exposure to the morbid, repulsive, abject, and horrific can anaesthetize the viewer.

Andy Warhol, Little Electric Chair, 1964-1965. Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen,

22” x 28”. Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.

American Pop Art

Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004)• Like many Pop artists,

Wesselmann took inspiration from American advertisements.

• His assemblage pieces from the early to mid-1960s mimic the 1950s/1960s American home with sardonic humor. – And read like product

placement. Tom Wesselmann, Still Lide No. 20, 1962. Mixed-media. Albright-Knox Art Gallery,

Buffalo, NY.

American Pop Art

Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004)• The female nude became focus of

Wesselmann’s art in the mid 1960s.

• He focused on the subject for decades and produced numerous versions of the female nude.– She is presented as an anonymous

sex symbol.– The style in which Wesselmann

paints his nudes recalls girlies magazines of the day, past and future artists.

Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude No. 57, 1964. Acrylic and

collage on board, 48” x 65”. Whitney Museum of American Art.

• Wesselmann’s Great American Nude is a 20th century Odalisque in the tradition of painters like Ingres.

= Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque,

1814. Oil on canvas, 36” x 64”. Musée du Louvre, Paris

Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude No. 57, 1964. Acrylic and collage on board, 48” x 65”. Whitney

Museum of American Art.

• Wesselmann’s nudes, like Ingres before him and Yuskavage today, take the nude as subject.– Yuskavage and Wesselmann address

the availability for consumption of the female form traditionally presented in Romantic and Baroque paintings of the past.

=

Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude No. 57, 1964. Acrylic and collage on board, 48” x 65”. Whitney

Museum of American Art.

Lisa Yuskavage, Balls, 2004. Oil on linen 38 ¼” x 60 ¼”. David Zwirner Gallery, NY.

American Pop Art

James Rosenquist (b.1933)• Like Warhol, Rosenquist worked commercially at first as a

billboard painters.• He took the scale on which he worked commercially and

applied it to his Pop works.• His best known piece, F-111 combines, much like

Rauschenberg’s combine paintings, items that do not fit together naturally.– Notice the care tire, the fighter jet, the hair dryer, umbrella and

mushroom cloud, and spaghetti.James Rosenquist, F-111, 1965. Oil on canvas with aluminum, overall 10’ x 86’. Private

Collection.

American Pop ArtJames Rosenquist (b.1933)• Colossal in size, 10’ x 82’ long, it

evokes the size of Mexican mural paintings as well as the desired effect of Abstract Expressionist painters to surround the audience with their paintings.

• His work combines the banality of the everyday with the destructive forces of government.

• It has become a glaring anti-war statement and iconic representative of the Pop Art era.

James Rosenquist, F-111, 1965. Oil on canvas with aluminum, overall 10’ x 86’. Private

Collection.

American Figure Painting

Larry Rivers (1923-2002)• Although working during

the height of Pop, Rivers’ work does not fit as neatly into the movement.

• Like his contemporary, Alice Neel, Rivers never abandons the figure and chooses instead to continue in its tradition.

Larry Rivers, Double Portrait of Berdie, 1955. Oil n canvas, 5’10 ¾” x 6’ 10 ½”. Whitney

Museum of American Art, NY.

American Figure Painting

Larry Rivers, Double Portrait of Berdie, 1955. Oil n canvas, 5’10 ¾” x 6’ 10 ½”. Whitney

Museum of American Art, NY.

Alice Neel, Frank O’Hara, 1960. Oil on Canvas,34” x 16 1/8”. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

American Pop ArtLarry Rivers (1923-2002)• A Pop presence does reveal

itself after 1960 when Rivers begins to look at prosaic items.

• In addition, he begins to introduce letters by stenciling them much like Jasper Johns in his work from the 1960s.

• He has a Pop-inspired interest in the everyday but retains his interest in painterly technique.

Larry Rivers, Dutch Masters and Cigars II, 1963. Oil and collage on canvas, 8’ x 5’ 7 ⅜” .

Collection Robert E. Abrams, NY.

• Rivers not only references pop culture for inspiration, but investigates the commercial use of master paintings-like the The Dutch Master company’s use of Baroque painting, The Syndics of the Clothmaker's Guild, 1662.

Larry Rivers, Dutch Masters and Cigars II, 1963. Oil and collage on canvas, 8’ x 5’ 7 ⅜”

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild, 1662. Oil on canvas, 75” x 110”

American Pop ArtRobert Indiana (b.1938)• Indiana works in many media including

painting, sculpture, and printmaking.• His iconic word sculptures from the

1960s, placed in cities throughout the U.S., make social commentary in a way unlike his Pop colleagues.

• His words and phrases read as adverse statements against American culture.

• His Love sculpture is best recognized of his works and helped to establish his position in modern American art.

• Replicas can be found in New York and Philadelphia’s Love Park. Robert Indiana, Love, 1964. Multiple

copies. Polychrome aluminum, 6’ x6’ x 3’. As pictured, Manhattan 6th avenue and

55th street.

West Coast Pop

West Coast Pop• West Coast Pop differs considerably from its east coast

counterpart.• West Coast artists practicing in the postwar era cared very little in

comparison to the New York School about commercial success.• Many of the artists on the West Coast after WWII were there on

the GI Bill completing their education.• As a result, there is a great variety of style.

– It is a style that does not share the East Coast agenda, its aesthetic, or ideology.

– West Coast art often embraces the unusual, it makes use of the readymade in its construction, embraces the abject, and makes much more of a political statement than was seen in Abstract Expressionism or Pop art.

West Coast PopEdward Kienholz (1927-1994)• Kienholz work takes dirt as its aesthetic,

embraces dissidence, and present a unsavory view of American life.

• Kienholz has become known for his environments or tableaus, large-scale sculptural installations.

• His State Hospital presents a harrowing look into the nature of America’s hospital system.– Pictured are 2 figures representing the figure

and its self-esteem.– They rest on sullied mattresses in a depressing

cell-like structure.– The upper figure is surround by a thought

bubble not unlike what comic strips employ to communicate characters’ thoughts.

• The image is viewed through a cell block window and alerts the viewer to his/her voyeuristic nature.

Edward Kienholz, State Hospital, (interior view), 1966. Mixed-media

tableau, 8’ x 12’ x 10’. Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Edward Kienholz, State Hospital, (exterior view), 1966. Mixed-media tableau, 8’ x 12’ x 10’. . Mixed-media tableau, 8’ x 12’ x 10’. Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Modern American PhotographyEddie Adams (1933-2004)• American photographers utilized

their medium for many purposes in the postwar era.– One of these was to document at

home and abroad the atrocities of government and cruelty of war.

• Won 1968 Pulitzer Prize.• Depicted is Nguyen Ngoc Loan

executing a suspected Vietcong prisoner in the street.

• Characteristics of this piece that it shares in common with Pop art are its graphic nature and honesty.

Eddie Adams, Saigon Execution, 1968. Gelatin-silver print.

West Coast PopEdward Ruscha (b.1937)• The work of practicing artist Ed Ruscha does not fit

neatly into any one category.• He works in various media-film, painting,

photography, and printmaking.• His images like Standard Station make regionalist-

type study of America’s landmarks.• This piece comes from a series of works created for

his book, Twenty-six Gasoline Stations featuring the gas stations along America’s iconic highway, Route 66.

• Dramatic composition and strict form recall 1930s style paintings while also hinting at the coming change in modernist aesthetics.

Edward Ruscha, Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963. Oil on canvas, 5’5” x 10’. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH.