What exactly is ‘Pop Art’?
Pop Art is an abbreviation for Popular Art, and represents an art movement that became famous for taking common, everyday objects and turning them into artwork. Images from Television and Advertising were most commonly used, such as Warhol’s beans tins and the famous work featuring the icon that was Marilyn Monroe.
Lawrence Alloway, an English art critic, first coined the phrase ‘Pop Art’ in 1958 in the Architectural Digest. He was referring to post-war work that use commercialism as its subject matter.
Pop Art started as a movement in the Fifties, in England. It didn’t reach the United States until the Sixties.
London pioneers of Pop Art included the artists Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi. In the Sixties the movement was joined by artists such as Peter Blake and David Hockney.
The development of Pop Art in the Sixties in the USA was aided by the backlash against consumerism and wealth after the Second World War.
It was at this stage that Andy Warhol, the most known Pop Artist, used a technique called seriagraphy, which was a mass production printing technique, to make his commentary on advertising and culture.
Although the artistic genre of Pop Art may have started over 50 years ago, new artists to the scene are merging every day. The emergence of such new talent is bolstered by competitions such as the one recently held in Northern Ireland.
This month saw the 7th annual ‘Ulster in Bloom Schools Art contest’ where the competition centred around one of the founders of pop art, David Hockney.
Andre Douglas, a New Bridge Integrated college student, won a highly commended aware in the competition. Andrew, from Loughbrickland, was delighted to receive his award in the pop art inspired art competition.
The competition rules asked for entries from students that produced their own interpretations of what they saw from their window. The competition was launched in September 2007 and received hundreds of works of art from across Northern Ireland.
Famed local artist Rita Duffy was one of the judges for the competition. The panel reduced the finalists down to just twenty-one before choosing an overall winner for each age group, from years eight – ten.
As we previously reported, a collection of Andy Warhol prints have been distributed to various US based universities so that the students can become inspired and influenced by the Pop Art pioneer’s artwork.
Prints featuring such icons of the 20th Century as Wayne Gretzky and Carly Simon are featured in the collection of 153 Andy Warhol prints and Polaroids that will be on show and the Reed Art Gallery at the UMPI received as a ‘gift’ from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program
The photographs were opened on Tuesday in front of an expectant crowd that had gathered to witness this, a momentous event for fans of Warhol.
The Warhol Foundation has donated a reported $28 million worth original Andy Warhol photographs to 183 universities across the United States. They’ve made this very generous gesture in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their creation.
They aim to provide better access to Andy Warhol’s work and methods so that others can study his art and learn from his methods.
The photographs donated to the UMPI are said to be worth $116,700 in total, with individual photos valued at $200 to $5,700 each!
The professor of fine arts at the UMPI said:
This will be a wonderful teaching resource for our art classes. What a resource this is for northern Maine and New Brunswick. The value of this gift is only going to appreciate.
What is Pop Art if it’s not about icons of our time inspiring artwork from the industry’s greatest art figures? Andy Warhol had his inspiration from the great figures such icons as Marilyn Monroe and Wayne Gretzky; today the icons are no less inspirational.
Bob Dylan is one such icon, and he has inspired a work of art from New York based illustrator Aaron Meshon. ‘Positively Dyland’ promises to let you enter the world of Bob Dylan, as the work features various aspects of the life and times of Bob Dylan, and the locations in New York City that were important to his career.
Bob Dylan himself also figures in the work, featured in the bottom right hand corner of the piece, on New York’s Fourth Street.
Aaron Meshon has produced a limited run of just 150 hand signed, and numbered prints. They have been created on Hahnemuhle fine art paper and are just 13 x 9 inches in size.
Each one carries a retail of £175.
If you’re considering having one of your photographs turned into a pop art style canvas print, but aren’t sure if you’ll find the results to your satisfaction, you may want to take note of the following. Yes, framed photographs are great and they allow you to keep your loved ones close at all times, no matter how far away they may really be, but canvas prints are much more dynamic and interesting. Here are just a few ways that canvas prints are better than photos.
- They are much bigger. It may be true that size isn’t everything, but when it comes to canvas prints this isn’t quite accurate. You can have massive canvas prints that dominate your room.
- Canvas prints are artwork. Photos are great, but pictures of your family don’t tend to be classed as artwork. Canvas prints are artwork.
- You always look your best on a pop art style canvas print. There’s no red eye, no bad hair days, no dodgy lighting.
- Canvas prints make great conversational pieces. Your friends are sure to be impressed that you have your own customised artwork hanging from your wall, don’t afraid to show off.
- Canvas prints don’t fade over time. Your photos can fade if not stored correctly. They can wither and lose their colour from the sun. Canvas prints stay true for much longer, keeping your artwork looking fresh and vibrant for years to come.
Andy Warhol made his name as one of the best, one of the founding members and one of the iconic symbols of Pop Art in the twentieth century. Something that many people don’t realise about Andy Warhol though, that as well as his painted Pop Art, he was also an accomplished photographer.
Recently some of Andy Warhol’s original private photographs were revealed as Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Centre was honoured to receive 155 of his Polaroids, all black and white, all taken by Warhol himself.
The Andy Warhol Foundation has celebrated its twentieth anniversary by handing over 28,543 different photographs taken by Warhol to 183 university and college museums throughout the United States. The idea is to showcase the artist’s photographs, as many people didn’t even know of the existence of the photographs.
Andrea Harris-McGee, director of the Grand Central Art Centre said:
These never-before-seen personal photographs give background information and a behind-the-scenes look into the mind of a world-renowned artist who was ahead of his time. Warhol was a catalyst for the pop art scene [and] set the art world on fire.
Warhol made his name turning mundane symbols into iconic art pieces celebrating popular culture of the time.
The photographs Warhol took were used to prepare for his artwork; they were used for research from the artist into his portraits.
When it comes to keeping your photographs in your home most people opt for the traditional methods of housing them in old photo albums, or stored away in boxes. Only to be dug out discovered when one of the children brings home a new love interest, so that they can be suitably embarrassed.
It’s a British tradition.
For the more presentable photographs most people choose to display them in frames, either on the sideboard, windowsill or proudly hung on the wall. There’s nothing wrong with showing off your photos in this manner, but it is a little traditional.
A more creative option for displaying your photographs is to turn them into artwork on canvas and have them become conversation pieces that dominate your room.
Collecting art is something a lot of people would like to do, but most of us are put off by the prices. Turning your own photographs into art is a great, cheap option that allows you to have something that has all of the style of a modern artwork, without the requirement to spend thousands of pounds on one.
You can choose your own photographs, anything that captures the character of you or your family, and upload them direct so that they can be turned into canvas prints, and become your own personalised piece of artwork.
In the sixties Marilyn Monroe was the ultimate pin-up within Hollywood, so much so that her name and image has held iconic status ever since. She was the subject of one of the most famous artists of the 20th Century, Andy Warhol, when he completed his Pop Art masterpiece.
Now in the 21st Century the British Supermodel, Kate Moss, has taken the place of Marilyn Monroe as a pop art icon.
In February, at the Urban Art auction, a series of prints by Banksy depicting pop art of Kate Moss sold for £96,000. In 2006 a set of 6 prints featuring Kate Moss sold in the USA for $94,000.
The Helium Foundation is to release a set of six prints of Kate Moss, with an expected limited run of just 20 sets. Expect the prices to be fairly high, and it could represent a sound investment if recent prices of Kate Moss artwork are anything to go by.
The World famous painting “Happy Tears” from the American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein has gone missing amidst an investigation into a scandal over slush funds in Hong Kong. 62 year old Hong Ra-hee is the owner of the painting and one of the most influential and respectable art collectors. She’s also the wife of the Chairman of the Samsung Group, Lee Kun-hee.
Korean prosecutors questioned Hong in a 6 hour session this month about the slush funds, and are interested to learn more about her family’s art collection, including the extremely valuable “Happy Tears” from Roy Lichtenstein.
Happy Tears features a red-haired woman exhibiting tears of delight in a cartoon style work.
Earlier this year, in January, one of Samsung’s warehouses was raided by prosecutors as they searched for the Lichtenstein painting in an attempt to seize it. It is believed to be the most valuable that the Hong family own.
The family also own the Frank Stella painting “Bethlehem’s Hospital”.
Ever since January the paintings have been known by the Koreans as the ‘slush fund paintings’. The case is proving very complicated for prosecutors as they are having difficulty ascertaining who actually owns the works.
An art collection worth a reported $600 million is currently being appraised for sale, and includes several works from renowned Pop Art icon Andy Warhol. Art dealer Ileana Sonnebend, who passed away in October last year, is having her prised collection broken up by his heirs in order to pay outstanding taxes on his estate.
The $600 million is an estimate of her collection’s worth from her lawyer, Ralph Lerner.
Not all of the collection will be sold, they are planning to break the collection down and sell just two groups, one including several works from Andy Warhol and the other including various Pop art works for the sixties.
The buyer has yet to be named but Lerner expects the works to be on public display once the sale has gone through.
Sonnebend was instrumental in launching the careers of many of the 20th century’s best know artists, including Warhol himself.
