Art Since the Sixties: Pop Art

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Art Since the Sixties
Art Since the Sixties refers to the art created since the 1960s. This period in art history is characterized by various styles and movements, including Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Pop Art, and Abstract Expressionism. Pop art emerged in the United Kingdom around 1955 and in the United States around 1958, reaching its peak in the 1960s (Peraino 407). This art started as a rebellion against the art and culture’s methods that were dominating and the traditional opinions on what society thought art ought to be. This movement appeared during a critical time when artists used common items such as journals, soup cans, and comic books to make more appealing works.
Generally, the pop artistic illustration is a style of art that first appeared during the 1950s and became widely known throughout the 1960s. Pop graphic art is characterized based on everyday objects and images from popular cultures, such as advertisements, comic books, and magazine covers. The movement is often associated with artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. One of Warhol's most famous works is the Marilyn Diptych, which features fifty identical silkscreened images of the actress Marilyn Monroe. The repetition of the images and the use of bright, bold colors are typical of Pop Art and reflect the movement's interest in mass-produced imagery and the commercialization of art. Art and Artists assert that the source image that Warhol used is Marilyn’s 1953 Niagara film promotional picture. Warhol used two different Marilyn images to demonstrate the star’s contrasting public and private lives. During her time, the actor was among the most renowned women. According to Art and Artists, the idea of differentiating Marilyn’s life was not Warhol’s, but the art gatherers Burton and Emily after visiting him. The two individuals proposed to Warhol to present the two images he made before their visit as a diptych.
In many ways, Pop Art responded to abstract symbolism that took over the art world in the 1950s. Instead of abstract, emotional brushstrokes, Pop Art used recognizable imagery and a calm, detached approach to commenting on the culture of the time (Christophe and Hoarau 68). The movement was also influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism, which similarly sought to challenge the conventions of traditional art. Andy Warhol’s work is a perfect example of contemporary art because the artist completed his first Marilyn painting immediately after her death due to a drug overdose in 1962. According to Kelly, contemporary art is what artists produce nowadays, a period that began in the second half of the 20th century. Generally, the sixties art laid the foundation for many of the styles and t...