What is Pop Art?
Pop art is a relatively new form of art which is
created around culture and pop art themes are based
on issues and tastes that are dominant in society at
the time. The pop art movement probably started in
Britain somewhere in the middle of the twentieth
century. At the same time, the phenomenon also
gained momentum in the United States of America.
Through the history
of pop art one can decipher popular mindsets and get
an idea of the evolution of society through time.
Pop art is after all, all about popular themes and
reflects the prevailing culture in society.
Pop art paintings may even involve a popular
advertisement or cartoon or film character, for
instance.
Pop art should not
be considered an incomplete or odd art form. In
fact, experts categorize it as one of the sub-genres
of modern art. Through the annals of pop art,
different trends in different parts of the world at
different times are recorded in history. American
pop art, for example, was believed to have marked
the development of representational art, by using
images from mass media. This was a whole new concept
in America in the 1950s and may have had to do with
burgeoning commercialism.
Spanish pop art
artists like Eduardo Arroyo used his creations to
voice his opinion on nature and environmental
issues. Other popular Spanish pop art artists
include Manolo Valdés and Rafael Solbes. The duo was
known to use comics and images from mass media to
create their art. In recent years, pop art has
gained popularity in Japan where comics have a very
important part in social life. Most Japanese
animations, unlike any other part of the world
targets street culture rather than children and pop
artists therefore have a vas array of topics to
employ.
In fact because of
the varied content of Japanese art and their skill
in the area, Japanese pop art has great demand and
is much appreciated around the world. It is not
uncommon to find such art in any pop art gallery
around the globe. This is also because Japanese
cartoons, especially the cartoons that feature older
characters portray grown-up themes and hence draw an
older fan-following. Besides, these cartoons are
made with such expertise and so much thought that
they appear almost life-like.
Japanese culture is also more open to receiving
messages that are suited for adults in cartoon
format.
Hence such cartoons
are popular in that part of the world and pop art
that centre on those themes can be extremely
thought-provoking and insightful. One famous pop art
artist in Japan is Yoshitomo Nara. Nara creates pop
art by using images of children to create powerful
statements. Nara’s art usually depicts anger and
rebellious youth. Images of children, however, are
also used by other Japanese pop artists to convey
other messages. Not all of these messages are
serious or hard-to-swallow. A lot of Japanese pop
artists use images of children to portray innocence
and purity. |
