Truisms Poster: Pop Art

Pop Art was a visual art movement that begun in the mid 1950’s in Britain and the United States of America. It challenged tradition by the mass produced commodities of popular culture. Such as advertising, comic books and everyday objects. It removes material from its context. Its goal was to use popular images as opposed to imagery of fine art. It uses irony and is seen as a reaction to the then prevailing movement of Abstract Expressionism. Pop Art was an extension and repudiation of Dadaism. While they had similarities Pop Art replaced the destructive anarchic features of the Dada movement by reaffirming aspects of mass culture. Pop Art made use of flatness of form, thick black lines that surround the forms, the use of primary colors (red, yellow, blue), and the Ben Day dot technique.

Andy Warhol (1928 to 1987) was the leading figure in pop art. He was an American painter, printmaker and filmmaker. He was a successful commercial illustrator before becoming and international celebrity. He was known for his silk-screens of both famous people and everyday objects. Some of his more famous works include the Campbell's Soup (1960), 10 Marilyns, (1967), Brooklyn Bridge (1983) and the Gun (1981-82)

Roy Fox Lichtenstein (1923 – 1997), an American Pop Artist commonly used popular advertising and comic book styles. He viewed Pop Art as, "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". Some of his more famous works are the “Drowning Girl” (1963), which is on display at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the head (1992) in Barcelona.

Billy Apple was a New Zealand sculptor and conceptual artist. He was associated with the New York school of Pop Art in the 1960’s. He collaborated with Andy Warhol and others. He pioneered the use of neon in art works. As a result of his influence to the pop art movement his works are now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Peter Phillips (1939-Present) was an English artist and one of the originators of pop art in Britain, he moved to New York and then later to Europe where he now lives and continues with his work. His works ranged from oils on canvas, media composition, collages, sculpture and architecture. Some of his more reputable works were: Purple Flag (1960) For Men Only - Starring MM and BB (1961) and the Entertainment Machine (1961).