POP ART

ANDY WARHOL AND WAYNE THIEBAUD  

Pop art started in Britain in the 1950s and spread to America in the 1960’s.  Pop artists used popular culture in their works.  They neither praised, nor condemned what they saw, but included the spread of popular culture into their art in much the same way that popular culture flooded into people’s subconscious. 

1. How does popular culture spread?  Why do you think Pop art started in the 1950’s? (Popular culture reached and increasing amount of people through mass media, like television.)

They often used media, advertising and comic book art styles to bring art closer to real life, to break down the barriers between art and life.  Pop art’s subject matter involves common objects and commercial images.  These objects are often distorted, enlarged, simplified and decorated using strange colors.

Pop artists wanted to bring art back to the people and to make it more meaningful to everyday folks.  

(Have Warhol’s and Thiebaud’s art displayed around the classroom.)

2. What do you think about this type of art?  Do you consider it art? 

Critics saw Pop art as vulgar, sensational and without merit.  Supporters liked it because they felt it was an art everybody could understand and that it brought all elements of art and life to one level.  

Andy Warhol

(1928-1987)

Andy Warhol was one of the most influential American artists of the 20^th century.  He was a leader of the Pop art movement, which used art to examine and comment on popular and commercial culture.  He drew on images such as comic books, soup cans, movie stars and the media to challenge the “highbrow” views of fine art.

In addition to being an artist, Warhol was a filmmaker, painter, collector, music producer, commercial designer and illustrator, author, magazine publisher, and fashion model!

Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928.  He studied pictorial design at Carnegie Institute of Technology and then moved to New York City and gained success as a commercial artist. (Creating advertisements)  In 1960 he produced the first of his paintings depicting enlarged comic strip images – such as Popeye and Superman – initially for use in a window display.

Warhol pioneered the development of the process of silk screening, a mechanical process that allowed images to be endlessly repeated. This technique enabled him to produce the series of mass-media images that he began in 1962.

Show 100 Campbell ’s Soup Cans and Campbell ’s Vegetable Soup

3. Why did Warhol pick Campbell ’s soup? (It’s very common; everyone knows what it is.)

4. Why did he repeat the image of the soup can? (It made the soup can an artistic element.)

5. Do you like these prints?  Would you hang them in your house? In your room?

Show prints of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor

6. Do you know who these women are? (Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, famous actresses of the day.)  

7. Why did Warhol pick famous people? (in the 60’s Monroe and Taylor were synonymous with the entertainment media)  

8. If Warhol was alive today, whom might he pick as a subject? (people that are popular today)  

9. Why are they unusual colors? (Warhol ‘s approach was very impersonal, he simply saw the women as a design element.)

Andy Warhol died in 1987, but his work still influences mass media and popular culture.

Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced teé-bow)

(1920-      )

Wayne Thiebaud was born in Mesa , Arizona in 1920 and grew up in Long Beach , California .  He earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Art from California State University .  He began his career as a commercial artist and cartoon illustrator.  Theibaud first started painting food and consumer goods in the early 60’s.

Thiebaud has taught for many years and has been honored many times for his teaching.  He has been a professor of art at the University of California since 1960.

Show examples of his work.

1. What do you think of these?

2. Do you think these were considered “art” at first? (Thiebaud thought his first painting of a row of pies was a crazy idea and that no one would see it.)

3. Why did he paint cakes or ties? (Thiebaud may have intended to show that similar objects have unique qualities if you look for them.)

4. What makes these paintings interesting? (Each cake/tie is unique, with it’s own (shape), color and pattern.)

5. Besides food, what does Thiebaud’s paintings make you think of? (The idea of being unique in a crowd, finding beauty in everyday objects.)

6. How can you tell that Thiebaud believes in making art fun?

7. How does Thiebaud use color in his paintings? (Pastel colors make the food appetizing.)  Would the cake paintings be as appetizing if they were painted with primary colors?

8. How does Thiebaud use paint and texture to make the work appealing? (He uses thick paint and smears it so it actually looks like frosting or whipped cream.)

9. What do you like best about Thiebaud’s work?

10. From what direction is the light shining on the cakes/ties? (from the left as shown by the shadow on the right. 

Art Activity: (Warhol “Pop Art” Portraits (the two Create Art attachments that show how to draw portraits can be used with this activity.)  

Pop Art Ice Cream Painting  

OR

Sweet Stuff

OR

Modify Pop Art Ice Cream Painting by using pastels or chalk instead of paint.  Students should use large drawing paper (at least 18x24) and draw one or more sweet such as an ice cream cone, sundae, fancy cake, cupcake etc.   It is OK if part of the sweet “falls off” the page.  Use pastels or chalk to color sweet and background. Spray with a sealer when finished.