Pop Art and design

Pop Art and design

Art movements throughout history have been created in the midst of various political upheavals. The larger part of art wanted to have itself looked upon as a form of expression with the sole purpose of providing aesthetic pleasure rather than conforming to politics. But the authenticity of this ideological concept was contradicted and faced in the late 1950’s with the emergence of a predominately American Art movement by the name of Pop Art. Pop emerged in the late 50’s and managed to thrive in the 60’s and way in to the late seventies. It utilized the imagery and techniques of consumerism and popular culture.

Many perceived pop as a mere continuation of abstract expressionism, well at least in part, or if anything more a reaction against it. There were forces within abstract expressionism that propelled artists towards the new mode. For example, as abstract expressionism began to exhaust its impulse, prevailing interests in texture led artists to ever-bolder experiments with materials. Pop had been given a well-needed push to reflect upon the homogenous social conditions of conformity that encouraged it to deviate from the normal and thrive for the new. This artistic transition was made in the face of fierce opposition from well-established institutions, unintentionally making pop a very open voice of protest and an integral part of the broader cultural happenings of the time.

The 50’s was an era which provided the right cultural, social and political conditions for the emergence of this new art phenomenon in the 60’s. As the 50’s were seen as a period of immense prosperity and conformity, almost every thing was being mass-produced. From food, to housing products were being produced in the millions. Pop used this as a focal point as it replicated images of mass consumerism to near life like status with a satirical view of western society and its obsession with consumption.

This new aesthetic mode confronted art lovers as well as ordinary people with everyday objects, which gained a new quality. It served as a breaking down of the division between race, poverty, excessive consumption and social injustice. Everyone consumed more or less the same products (such as Coca-Cola) be it someone rich and famous or the ordinary man on the street.

Art critics and mainstream cultural institutions of the time that were rather conservative had alienated pop art and its concepts. They did not respond very nicely to change especially in the form of pop. Critics back then, as is the case even till this day carried immense clout in the art world, one could say they could ‘’make’’ or ‘’break’’ artists.       

Pop favoured figured imagery and the reproduction of everyday products such as Campbell soup cans, comic strips and advertisements, giving art a new realism in its most contemporary form. Pop involves the use of existing imagery from mass culture already processed into two dimensions. Pop emphasises flatness and frontal presentation. Pop artists, especially in America have a preference for centralized composition and for flat areas of unmodulated and unmixed colour bound by hard edges.

Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans are about sameness (although with differing labels): same brand, same size, same paint surface, same fame as a product. They mimic the condition of mass advertising, out of which his sensibility had grown. This fascinated and yet indifferent take on the famous object, became the key to Warhol’s work. Warhol extended it by using silkscreen. Pop concentrated on the contemporary subject matter integral to the ready-made sources the artists have used. Pop had been more than just an artistic voice; it was a part of something bigger whose effects were even present in film, literature and music.

 Pop was very much a movement that emerged with very few blessings from the establishment that housed it, as it was thought upon as vulgar and completely contrary to what art should be. And unacceptable were the images it was producing that had been thought of as no more than a colourful satire of society with its sneer like qualities aimed at exposing the inability of a nation as great in size and wealth. This publicity through pop art was widely regarded by major institutions as damaging for the nations morale. As pop delved deep into the darkest part of corporate America, it exposed certain truths that had been repressed for too long.

At that time Pop had not acquired the respect of an establishment, or been elevated in the mainstream to a position of the highest acclaim that it surely deserved. However, it surely had been embraced by ordinary people even more so than expressionism as it captivated the hearts of millions of people through images of everyday ordinary life, represented in varying degrees from its most simplistic to highly explicit. Pop surely should have been credited with the fact that it so took art into to a new mode aesthetically, through techniques and format’s which prior to pop had never been seen before. Pop was a movement that wanted to deviate from the normal practices, thus experimented with new modes of representation as versatile and vigorously vibrant as the socio-political context in which it was created.     

After Pop became Popular it started to influence product design in the late 60 and many designers like Joe  Colombo,Quashar Khan,Verner Penton. Which they all where influenced from pop design and created products fot the pop culture at that time.Pop was in an era where a lot of movements were mixed,Like the psychedelic movement and the Space age era which made a very big combination of ideas and style which till this day is still inspiring a lot of people and designers.

Reference:

POP ART AND PRODUCT DESIGN. 2015. POP ART AND PRODUCT DESIGN. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.technologystudent.com/prddes1/popart2a.html. [Accessed 30 January 2015].

Modern Pop Art Style Apartment. 2015. Modern Pop Art Style Apartment. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.home-designing.com/2013/08/modern-pop-art-style-apartment. [Accessed 30 January 2015].

Pop Art Design – review | Art and design | The Guardian. 2015. Pop Art Design – review | Art and design | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/20/pop-art-design-barbican-review. [Accessed 30 January 2015].

Introduction to Pop Art - YouTube. 2015. Introduction to Pop Art - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IxcJsXyWtQ. [Accessed 30 January 2015].