What is Pop Art?
Pop Art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid- to late-1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane mass-produced cultural objects.
Some of the most well known pop arts are Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, David Hockney.
Why Pop Art?
I have always been drawn to Pop Art. I believe this is because there is an element of achievability to it – especially when you compare it to the works of the great classic masters i.e. there is absolutely way I would even produce any form of recognisable reproduction of a landscape by Constable or a portrait by Rembrandt or DaVinci. I do feel though I have a fighting chance of making a facsimile of a Box of Brillo pads or colouring a photograph of Marilyn Monroe.
However, by saying this I am in no way saying that there is less merit in Pop (or any genre of Modern Art) than there is in the classics, of course it does. As with call art it is always not just about the techniques or technical ability of the artist – it is about the artist ability to visualise their concept to the audience. And anyway while I feel mildly confident with a Brillo box, the comic book style of Lichtenstein is way beyond my skills
Probably the world’s most famous pop artist is Andy Warhol and his Campbell’s Soup cans or the multi-coloured pictures of Marilyn Monroe (and other pop culture icons). I have always been fascinated by the simplicity of these images, how the ordinary was turned into art with simple techniques and they have always frustrated me because they highlight to me my limitation as an artist as I often struggle with concepts. As I had said perfect technique or skill with a paint brush, pencil or camera does not make you an artist.
What would Warhol do?
While been stuck at home due to the Covid-19 lockdown I have been experimenting with photoshop, an application I tend to use sparingly in my photography. I was looking at techniques to manipulate images and expand my abilities with it. While experiment with different techniques I was reminded of Warhol how he changed the ordinary and the familiar into art and a concept was born – not an awarding winning concept but one I have enjoyed creating.
In today’s world what techniques would Andy Warhol be using? `Would he still be using silk screen or would he have embraced photoshop and the photo manipulation? I like to think that he would be using photoshop to experiment and with this thought in mind I have used portrait from my back catalogue to create different versions of the same image. I have embraced the power of Adobe Photoshop to create a different view of the same basic image, we are looking at the portrait from the same point of, the same angle it is just the treatment of the image that has changed.
At this point in my project I ask myself some questions. Is it photography? Does it illustrate my concept? Does it have merit?
They are creative edits of a photograph, with the small photographic validity as composite images containing Unicorns etc and the project has help develop my knowledge of photoshop and while we can never truly know how Andy Warhol (and others) would be producing art in the 21st century the project is showing that Pop Art is accessible as style through photoshop, to those of us who are like me rather lacking in the drawing skills department…
It is now time to reflect on these image and how to best utilise these skills to produce a meaningful body of work.
I’ll leave you with a collage of work by Keith Haring to illustrate that have some where to go to emulate the pop art masters
