Popular art, the avant-garde movement in the United States(1952), rebelled against the egocentric abstract expressionists. Its inspiration is to be found in industrialized mass culture, in the banal clichés of Western society.
Pop artists aimed their art at the real world, as a critical tribute to consumerist society. Their images derived from everyday life: popular mass media such as newspapers, magazines, comic books, television, advertisments, graffiti or design. A large variety of figurative styles and techniques was applied: from screen prints, paintings and photocopies to happenings and sculptures.
In 1956 The Whitechapel Art Gallery(London) organized This is Tomorrow, the first pop art exhibition. In 1962 The Sidney Janis gallery(NY) shared works of Warhol, Oldenburg and Lichtenstein.
Everybody recognizes Andrew Warhola's( 1928-1987) boldly coloured portrait series of Monroe, Mao, Onassis and Presley. He was a master in commercial simplification.
Claes Oldenburg(1929) transformed everyday objects such as basebalcaps, lipsticks, hamburgers or typing machines into comic, lifesize monuments.
Roy Lichtenstein(1923-1997) is best known for his Banday dotted paintings of comic images with black contours and speech balloons.
Until the 24th of January 2016 these monumental pop art creations can be admired in The World Goes Pop exhibition at Tate Modern.
