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