Pop Art (Design)

Pop art started in Britain in the 1950s and became popular in the 1960s. It exploded in popularity in New York City where artists such as Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns were the main artists in this movement. It was mostly used for commercials and advertising products or celebrities. Popular products which were advertised with pop art were Coca-cola and Campbell’s soup. The Pop art movement was meant to be fun and attract a lot of people particularly young people. Some of its characteristics are normally bold bright colours, flat; make use of images that are popular and mostly used in comics. This type of Art has many different variations of art such as photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. This art movement later had an increase in mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture.

Marilyn Monroe (1962)

Frank Powolny, Marilyn Monroe,
gelatin silver print, 1953.

This painting is done on a large canvas and Monroe’s head is at the centre in a rectangle and it is very small for this huge canvas. Its background is covered with metallic gold or bronze paint. The original photo was in black and white photo of Monroe which was taken for the film 'Niagra', in 1953 and then Andy Warhol the artist, painted it with bright colours to make it a pop icon. This is a great memorial of Marilyn Monroe which the photo was taken at her last photo session before she died and this painting was done after she made a suicide. This art work was inspired or influenced from traditional painted icons from the past such as the ‘Byzantine Madonna’. 

Andy Warhol made also alot of the same photo but with different colours and experimentations.

“Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe,

 Silkscreen ink, Silkscreen ink on synthetic

 polymer paint on canvas”.

Jim Fitz Patrick's Poster of Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Jim Fitz Patrick has been a bit controversial for his art work and this artwork might have been one of them. This poster of Jim Fitz Patrick named Che Guevara after the name of the man in the image, which became very popular. It was done in May 1968 and was published in Bolivia after Che Guevara’s death. This poster “became the iconic image of the anti-Vietnam war protests worldwide and today is the symbol of F.A.R.C. in Columbia and the Zapitistas of Mexico in their fight for freedom and autonomy”.

Andy Warhol's

This photo was also experimented in many different ways in Pop art as it doesn’t have any copy right. Even Andy Warhol made his version of this image which in my opinion it is better than Jim Fitz Patrick because Warhol’s are more bright in colour and attractive. 

Bibliography:

About.com, by Beth Gersh-Nesic, n.d., Pop Art - Art History 101 Basics, [online] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/Pop-Art-Art-History-101-Basics.htm [Accessed 20 April 2014].

Smarthistory, speakers Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker, Text by Virginia Spivey, n.d., Warhol's Gold Marilyn Monroe. [online] Available at: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/pop-art.html [Accessed 20 April].

Jim Fitz Patrick, Anon, n.d., Che, [online] Available at: http://www.jimfitzpatrick.com/che/ [Accessed 20 April 2014].