If you were to mention pop art, most people nowadays would likely think of Andy Warhol. When you hear that name, what image comes to mind ? Maybe it’s his vivid paintings of Marilyn Monroe or other celebrities. Or perhaps it’s one of his iconic works featuring Campbell’s soup cans. Interestingly, his first artwork featuring these cans, 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans, which was first exhibited on July 9, 1962, actually predated the term “pop art.”
Pop art would be coined by a New York gallery months after Warhol’s exhibit in California, but the art style had been around long before the moniker was used. Pop art emerged in the US and the UK in the 1950s. One of the themes among US pop artists was an impersonal focus on items common in American culture, often with an appreciation for mass-produced goods. Many paintings were adaptations of works by other artists or were based on images taken from other media, like comic books or advertising. Most of the time, the reproductions were meant to be ironic or to be viewed as parodies. At the start of the 1960s, pop artists began to feature at individual art exhibits and were able to make a name for themselves outside of the art world.
Even after more than 50 years, pop art continues to be a popular, highly commercial art form. And you can really find it everywhere. You can see parodies of Warhol’s work or ironic pop art on postcards and T-shirts. Music artists have used pop art on their albums. Even comic books and illustrators have been influenced by the art form.
