When you think of Pop Art you probably think of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein or Peter Blake? They are the Western leaders in the Pop Art world.

What might not be as apparent is the Japanese movement in Pop Art.

Keiichi Tanaami was one of the earliest in the Japanese Pop Art movement, and he attended the Musashino art University. After graduation, and a brief flirtation with a design job, Tanaami went out on his own to experiment with animation, illustration and lithographs.

In the sixties Tanaami became exposed the Pop Art movement in the USA and met with Andy Warhol in New York. Inspired by Warhol’s silkscreen printing, Tanaami moved to America, and lived in San Francisco where his work become more colourful.

The ideas for his work stem from his dreams and his childhood memories, particularly the gruesome work he has created surrounding the torture he would inflict in goldfish. Tanaami was a particularly troublesome child when it came to inflicting unnecessary pain upon pets.

Today the search engine Giant Google went all Pop Art on us. They offered a series of skins for iGoogle, the customisable homepage that users can login to and add various RSS feeds and even access their email from.

The skins, which make the iGoogle homepage look like anything you want, were created for Google by the legendary Pop Artist Jeff Koons. Google commissioned Koons to create the artwork just for their iGoogle page.

Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience for Google said:

Did you notice the chrome tulips on Google’s homepage today? They are part of a special Google doodle done by renowned artist Jeff Koons. And that isn’t the only art appearing anew on Google today. As part of our iGoogle Artists project, we have collaborated with almost 70 artists in 17 countries on 6 continents to create special iGoogle themes — works of art that appeal to all ages and interests.

One of the pieces of art from Jeff Koons featured a Pop Art work of Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles.

Koons is somewhat of a controversial figure in the Pop Art world, a 53 year old who married one of his models, a former porn star.

Koons was joined by many different artists who created work for Google to mark this day, and many of them weren’t even artists at all. Even the band Coldplay created a skin for iGoogle.

He may be famous for creating great works of art out of the mundane, and the icons of the twentieth Century, but now Pop Art luminary Andy Warhol can be bought in a bottle; a bottle of perfume that is. Perfume that supposedly captures the scent of Andy’s beloved New York, where the artist spent most of his time.

Andy Warhol once said about New York:

My favourite smell is the first smell of spring in New York.

Now that smell has been captured in a fully authorised perfume named Andy Warhol Union Square, and it sells for $160 for 50ml. The Pop Art inspired perfume can be bought in a fuchsia version of the famous Bond No. 9 sculpted glass perfume bottle. It features an image of Andy Warhol’s flowers set against an image of a lawn.

There are different designs on the bottles so collectors could easily spend a lot of money on these, the latest in a line of ‘Warhol prints’.

The scent is billed as being unisex, though seems to obviously play towards the feminine side.

While your wedding day is supposed to be the best day of your life, it can also be the most expensive. Catering, the cake, car hire, suits and every other little expense mounts up into thousands, often tens of thousands.

One of the most expensive, and specialised, of these costs is usually the wedding photographer. All too often as well the bride and groom aren’t actually satisfied with the results from their wedding photographer.

However there is an alternative to hiring an expensive wedding photographer to capture your special day, and have the results turn out disappointing. You could allow your guests to take the photographs for you, by placing disposal cameras on every place setting at the dinner. This way your guests can take their own personal, special pictures of moments you will most likely have missed.

These photographs will then include images of your guests, and of course the happy couple, in a more relaxed and natural pose; making for much better pictures and a true record of the emotions and feelings of the day.

Then of course, for a truly memorable and unique memento of your special day you can transfer the best of these photos to canvas to make works of art of your wedding day.

Some of the best canvas prints are made up from photographs of children. They’re usually very willing subjects when a camera comes out and everyone in your family will want to see what your kids have been up to lately. Babies are even more popular subjects.

Of course, actually getting a decent photo of your baby can prove tricky, as their attention span is often short at best. So how do you get your baby to stay still for long enough to get a decent photo?

First off, keep it light. If you try to get a posed photo it will look forced. Keep your camera with you at all times, as you never know when the best moment will be. Try to photograph your baby without them knowing, when they’re going about their usual day, such as feeding, burping or playing.

To gain your baby’s attention try making noises to distract your baby, this should make them curious enough to look up from their current activity to see what you are doing.

It’s also worth taking several frames at once if you have a digital camera as babies are known for blinking at the wrong moments.

So long as you keep smiling yourself and keep everything light and fun, you’re sure to get a great photo that can be made into a great canvas print.

Gul Coskun is an art dealer who specialises in Pop Art, and in particular the work of Andy Warhol. She has been dealing in Warhol’s work for twelve years, when she started selling his work from her Kensington based gallery.

Back then dealings in Warhol weren’t so commonplace as the artist wasn’t as popular as he had been in the past, or indeed as he is now.

Gul Coskun’s first exhibition at the London Art Fair was a modest display as the gallery gave her a lowly stand right at the back near the toilets, which because her Warhol paintings of Jackie Onassis weren’t the sort of thing that art lovers at the time were enthusing about.

People said that it was just decorative rubbish… I believed in Warhol.

Luckily for Gul Coskun she persevered with her love of Warhol and continued to deal and collect his works. That faith in Andy Warhol has paid off for Gul Coskun immeasurably, as Warhol is indeed now regarded as one of the finest artists of the last Century.

Coskun even used to hold parties themed around Warhol, such was her dedication to his work.

There would be Warhols on the walls, the Velvet Underground on the stereo and Warhol look-alikes walking about. The walls were covered in tin foil. They were great parties.

Naturally the themed parties convinced people attending to purchase the artwork, which is why Coskun is now the leading dealer of Andy Warhol in Europe.

Pop Art isn’t just confined to the canvas. It isn’t just a medium that exists in the 2D format, hung on the wall for art fans to enjoy. Pop Art also exists in the form of film, from such luminaries as Andy Warhol.

The recent film exhibition in the ICA in London showcased the second part of Independent Cinema’s Secret Masterpieces of Cinema. In the exhibition was a program centred around Pop Art.

Among the artists featured were Derek Boshier, who appeared in ‘Pop Goes the Easel’, a BBC documentary set in 1962. The documentary was about four Pop Artists, set at the time when Pop Art was just starting out as a movement.

Also shown was Boshier’s Link, which is a travelogue examining the shapes through architecture through the ancient world, including Egypt and Mecca.

Velvet Underground: Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows clips from the home movies of Pop Art master Andy Warhol. The movies feature abstract footage of Warhol stalwarts such as Gerard Malanga appearing before the camera in a series of blurred images and light.

When an art show is organised in Paris you expect things to be very slick, very chic and well, very French… for want of a better word. However, a recent Paris art show has caused its organisers to be somewhat embarrassed at the conspicuous absence of the central painting.

A painting that was actually displayed on the poster promoting the art show!

Paris’ Grand Palais has been promoting their new Pop Art show by featuring the work of the Haitian painter Herve Telemaque on their posters, but due to auction house Christies, the painting was nowhere to be seen.
The 1964 painting is called ‘Escale’ and was featured on the front of the catalogue, prompting art lovers to query the whereabouts of the Pop Art classic.

Christies auction house sold the painting for 180,250 euros in December, but the buyer has still to pay for the work, meaning that even though the new owner had promised the painting to the gallery for their exhibition, until he pays Christies what he owes they have refused to let the painting leave their auction house.

A spokesman for the exhibition stated:

There was a setback with the art collector and we only found out about it a week before the opening.

We spent a lot of money to advertise this exhibition with the promotion centered on Telemaque’s painting.

With or without the famous painting, the art exhibition is sent to remain open until July 13th.

You may be wondering quite how we turn your photographs into works of art that you can hang on your wall? The process starts when you send us your artwork. Usually your pictures will come to us in .jpg format, but other formats are fine for us to work with as well. You can also send us the dimensions of the size of canvas that you’d like us to create.

Be sure to measure your wall first though!

It doesn’t matter at this stage if your image is imperfect as we can correct anything that needs doing. Our digital image experts can enhance your photographs to correct any colours, balance the colours, remove any imperfections and of course get rid of any red-eye.

We will also resize and crop the image to make the best possible canvas print for you.

When we’re happy with the improvements we have made we print the photograph onto artist quality canvas.

We’re of the form belief that our use of inks and printers achieves the best possible quality of print on canvas for your requirements.

Our job is to make the best canvas print for you, and we take it very seriously.

Resembling a scene from the Godfather, a piece of Warhol styled pop-art featuring the Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has suddenly cropped in Palermo, Italy. The pop-art, which is said to look like Warhol’s iconic image of Marilyn Monroe, appeared in the centre of Palermo, just down from the Cathedral.

“Messina Denaro - The Last One!” has been scrawled in graffiti below the mural, next to a row of dollar signs.

The letters ‘FA’ have been written above the mural, which are believed to be the initials of the artist.

Carlo Vizzini, an Italian conservative senator said:

The mural ’s prominent position in central Palermo, as if it were a normal piece of pop art rather than an image of one of the most wanted, powerful and dangerous Mafia fugitives alive today is serious and disturbing.

It is disquieting that Messina Denaro gets treated like a Hollywood movie star and a person to emulate.

This shows the uphill struggle we face in bringing about the change in mentalities needed to defeat the Mafia.

Messina Denaro has been on the run since 1993 and is said to be one of the leaders of the Sicilian Mafia.