Pop Art

Question 1

Answer 1

Richard Hamilton, Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?, 1956

“Father” of Pop Art, English artist, argued modern mass visual culture was replacing traditional art- movies, t.v., ads now define beauty

Dada-esque collage- mass produced, easily recognizable images from popular culture- t.v., radio, vacuum, theater, cars (Ford symbol), canned ham, bodybuilder (Tootsie “Pop”) over penis, sexualized housewife, under giant moon (space race); comic strip on wall next to portrait of John Ruskin (accused Whistler of Modern art destroying culture)

social satire- visual overload of 50s- opposite of Formalism- message important not object crafted

Question 2

Answer 2

Roy Lichtenstein, Oh, Jeff…I Love You, Too…But… 1964

monumentalizes disposable consumer culture/mass media; paintings from panels of adult comic books (war, romance), elevates to fine/”high” art

uses Benday Dots- reduces ink required to suggest color (like Pointillism but dots fuse into one overall hue, not blended from afar), glorifies mechanical reproductive process, denies hand of artist, superficiality of media-saturated 1960s culture

represent & parody flat, superficial comic book communication

common subject: newly independent woman’s ambivalent relationship to domesticity

Question 3

Answer 3

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe Diptych, 1962

one of the most famous Pop Artists- biting satire- celebrity culture demands only our attention, not thought like art of past- art should be like movie stars, interesting for 15 minutes then forgotten

uses commercial technique-silk screening- to mass produce images of famous publicity photo

photo is caricature of actress-emphasized notable features, “cult of personality”- real person lost, stardom as commodity

1962- year of Monroe suicide- mass media images desensitize- we become voyeurs through repetition

diptych format- religious icon- she is contemporary secular saint- right side- ghosts/death?

Question 4

Answer 4

Claes Oldenburg, Lipstick (Ascending) On Caterpillar Tracks, 1969, reworked, 1974

ironic and light-hearted critique of consumer culture with sculptural monuments, comments on how we use and dispose of objects

for alma mater (School of Architecture), graduate students asked for monument to “Second American Revolution” of 1960s- racial/gender equality/protest of Vietnam war

replaces war-like aggression with reminder of sexual revolution (originally tip was inflated & more erotic)- “make love, not war”