'Pop Art Myths' and the 'MYTHS AND HEROS' Notion

Equipo Crónica - Guernica  1971

1- Pop Art movement can be related to a belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or ocurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal. But it can also be related with the representation of a character with noble qualities who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, displays courage and the will for self sacrifice that is, heroism for some greater good of all humanity.



2-This painting is the second part of the series "Guernica" made by Equipo Crónica in 1971, during the dictatorship of Franco. They demythified a mythical spanish paintor like Picasso to show instability in Spain in the 70's and their opinion against the dictatorship and against the repression system. They changed the lugubrious colors or actualy they covered them with very shinning colours, red and yellow, representatives of the mythical superheroe's comics and they also highlight this idea of comic with the onomatopoeia "WHAAM!" an element that remind us to the pop artist lichtenstein. Even if Equipo Crónica demythified this painting they continue with Picasso's idea of violence of the composition. The horse in the painting of Picasso symbolize civilians, it is injured because of the attacks. The brutality of the italians and germans in June 1937 is depicted by Equipo Crónica with less lyrism, more explicit.



3-Personally I pretty like Pop Art, I think it is original and I particulary love the historical pop art paintings, their different meanings, the demythification, the way they changed an art into another. The use of explosives and shinning colours makes me feel surprised at every artwork I see. I appreciated this kind of art and artist.

Why can we connect Pop Art with modern mythology? Not all mythology dates from the days of ancient cultures. People around the world continue to create new myths and to embroider or rework existing ones. Modern technologies such as publishing, movies, telecommunication, and the Internet allow folktales, rumors, and newly minted myths to travel faster and reach more people than ever before. One distinctive feature of some modern legends is that they originated as artistic creations, although their creators may have drawn on earlier themes. This is shown in Pop art with the representation of music myths for example, enlarging them and converting them in semi-gods for some people. They have become myths like the american dream or the 27 club.

Pop Art Myths

There are various topics in Pop Art.

Thanks to the Interactive Magazine of the Thyssen Museum of Madrid, made during the exhibition,"Pop Art Myths", that took place from June 10 to September 14, I am going to present the main themes of pop art paintings.

1961, Popeye - Roy Lichtenstein

1-Collage advertising  comics:  Pop Art was the successor of cubism and dadaism (among many others). It inherited from the two mentioned the tradition, but it added an alteration in the allegorical component and content. British Artists like Hamilton and Peter Blake, were pioneers in the introduction of comics in art. Roy Lichtenstein and Warhol turned comic strips into large format paintings.

Andy Warhol- Campbell's tomato soup
1962

2-Emblems: Everybody knows that in the middle of the 20th century, advertisings became aggressive. It inundated society, from television to the walls of the streets. Brands, logos and slogans invaded us. Coca-Cola's cans, Heinz ketchup, Brillo soap, Campbell's soup,etc. were everyday objects that turned into art when pop-artists like Hamilton or Warhol painted them. 

Peter Blake - Beatles 'Love me do'
2004

3-Myths: Hollywood was at the time a super important industry of the seventh art. Celebrities were not just famous people but Myths. People benerated them, converting them into idols of the culture.

Tom Wesselmann self portrait while drawing
1982

4-Portraits: Pop Art reassessed the way of making art. That reinterpretation came also until portraits. Their first objective was to me original and for it they remolded reality to make their own perspective.Warhol even fades his image to "become" or being seing as a virtual character.

Roy Lichtenstein - Still life with palette
1972

5- Landscape interiors still lifes: Artists decided to paint contemporary urban milieus, not just private and domestic but public and commercial spaces. In the consummer society, objets had a central position and pop artists recovered and reinterpretated the traditional genres of paintings: landscapes, interiors and still lifes.

Allen Jones-Stand in
1991

6-Urban Eroticism: Sexual freedom encouraged a lot of artist to paint eroticism. Norms and social attitudes changed. Seductive women and men were almost like adds, they were everywhere and caught our eye. Lichtenstein made the new Venus (symbol of love, sex, beauty and fertility)

1975
Equipo Crónica - Serie Negra

7-History Painting:  Personal opinions, reinterpretation of events, historical paintings with a hide meaning are not new. But Pop Art is a movement that gives a lot of importance to images in a moment of history (Cold War, Franco-era, etc) that changed the world.Major historical figures like Mao or Kennedy were protagonist of a lot of works. Historical painting in spain was very important after Franco's death beacause it reflected with irony the amnesia of society that afflicted all the country. 

8-Art about Art: Pop Art tries to change our vision about the old genious artist's paintings in our world. They versionated paintings made by Velazquez, Botticelli or others to create a new vision and sometimes to demythologize for a political denounciation.

Equipo Crónica- El intruso
1969

MYTHS AND HEROES

Here it is my 'Myths and Heroes' worksheet