Op Art and Pop Art
In the 1960s, new styles and movements were initiated. Some painters continued in the path of abstraction, as exemplified by the op art works of Hungarian-born Victor Vasarely. Where op art relies on producing generally abstract optical illusions for its effect, pop art, as in the witty works of its originator, the English artist Richard Hamilton, is representational. Pop artists drew their imagery from advertising billboards, movies, comic strips, and ordinary, everyday objects. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol were major American pop artists.
Pop Art
· In what ways did Pop Art respond to the mass commercialization of popular culture in the 1950's and 60's?
· What is the relationship between Pop Art and popular culture?
Pop Art in England: Richard Hamilton
Pop Art in the United States
“Pop Art”
“Whereas earlier styles of art had been based upon the artist's experience of his or her own inner expressive self or had been directed outwardly towards nature, the Pop Art movement was a manifestation of the artist's response toward a consumer economy in which massproduced goods dominated the popular and mass media. As might be expected, a style of art based upon the like of advertisements, comic books, and the packaging of manufactured items was received with a “certain amount of skepticism and criticism and was not taken seriously in some circles. However, Pop Art was successful in elevating common imagery, whose proliferation in itself made it obscure, to a consciousness-raising level, where it was looked at "anew."“
“Pop Art originated in England; it appeared in the United States with the work of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and others including Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein. Common to these artists was the ability to take something familiar and transform or place it in a new context that challenged people's assumptions about it.”
“Jasper Johns”
“Like his colleagues Robert Rauschenberg and the musical composer John Cage, Jasper Johns (b. 1930) has sought to narrow the gap between art and life by basing his art upon life's common, everyday artifacts and symbols. In Target with Four Faces (1955), he has used the image of the target; in White Flag (1955) and Three Flags (1958) [see illustration 29], he has used the symbol of the American flag; and in Painted Bronze (1960), he has used an old American favorite, the beer can.”
“Robert Rauschenberg”
“Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) creates two-dimensional collages and three-dimensional assemblage sculptures, which are called combines and consist of found objects, many of which are throwaways. For example, his combine Odalisk (1955-1958) consists of a stuffed rooster standing on a box covered with photos and clippings attached to a post mounted upon a pillow. Monogram (1955-1959) presents the viewer with a stuffed angora goat wearing a tire while standing upon a painted platform.”
“Claes Oldenburg”
“The work of Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) is oftentimes met with a smile because of the manner in which he uses popular foods, common appliances, and household fixtures as the inspiration for his sculptures. What he does is create exaggerated, even shocking versions of these objects, often on a grand scale. His work ranges from the glorification “of a symbol of American taste in Two Cheeseburgers with Everything (1962) through the transformation of a simple, taken- for- granted object, the clothes pin, into one of monumental proportions as a forty-foot sculpture, to Soft Toilet (1966) [see illustration 30], a kapok-filled vinyl representation, leading viewers to a different sort of confrontation with these objects than they are used to.”
“Andy Warhol”
“Andy Warhol (1928-1987), responding to the use of mass production and repetition in advertising and the mass media, made use of these techniques in many of his works. His silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe (1962), his 200 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), and his three-dimensional Brillo Boxes (1964) seem to capitalize upon mechanically produced items. Like his print of 200 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), Warhol's painting Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962) presents an image of sameness [see illustration 31]. However, when the viewer realizes that there are in fact differences between the individual Coke bottles, the question whether the differences are due to the painting process (by accident or design) or whether a statement is being made concerning subtle differences is left unanswered. Though there is some debate among critics as to whether Warhol was glorifying or condemning the practice of sameness, Warhol was himself a media event during and after the Pop era, an artist who marketed himself as well as his work.”
“Roy Lichtenstein”
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“Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923), another Pop artist, utilized printed media, specifically the comic strip, as the source of his artwork. Though his early intent may have been to produce antipainterly works that would not be found aesthetically pleasing in the art market, it soon became apparent that his paintings, such as As I Opened Fire (1964) and Little Big Painting (1965) [see illustration 32], were, in fact, more than simply copies of comic strip imagery on a large scale. Through his stylized use of line, color, and printer's dots, Lichtenstein provided the public with large images whose style, subject, and imagery seemed antithetical to the kind of attention they seemed to demand by simply being works of art.”
Painting
>Sculpture
“Op Art”
“Op Art (Optical Art), popular especially during the 1960s, reflected a shift of interest among some artists from attention to the artwork to attention to the viewer's perception of the artwork. Though at first it may appear that this style of art does not fit within the evolution of the visual arts, upon further consideration, it makes perfect sense for it to have developed. As seen in earlier discussions, the construction of traditional paintings was based upon the concept of a "window" that the viewer would look into. With more contemporary painters, such as the Abstract Expressionists, the focus became the surface of the canvas itself, with attention being directed toward the process involved in the creation of the work. Op Art was a result of the application of the optical laws of nature to the elements of art and design in order to produce complex images and patterns that could deceive the brain into "seeing" vibration, color, and movement where there was none.”
Op Art
Movement that developed in the United States and Europe in the mid-1960s. Deriving from the abstract expressionist movement, op art includes paintings concerned with surface kinetics. Colors were used in creating visual effects, such as afterimages and trompe-loeil. Vibrating colors, concentric circles, and pulsating moire patterns were characteristic of works by Victor Vasarely, Richard Anusziewicz, Bridget Riley, Ad Reinhardt, Kenneth Noland, and Larry Poons. “
“Op Art (Optical Art), popular especially during the 1960s, reflected a shift of interest among some artists from attention to the artwork to attention to the viewer's perception of the artwork. Though at first it may appear that this style of art does not fit within the evolution of the visual arts, upon further consideration, it makes perfect sense for it to have developed. As seen in earlier discussions, the construction of traditional paintings was based upon the concept of a "window" that the viewer would look into. With more contemporary painters, such as the Abstract Expressionists, the focus became the surface of the canvas itself, with attention being directed toward the process involved in the creation of the work. Op Art was a result of the application of the optical laws of nature to the elements of art and design in order to produce complex images and patterns that could deceive the brain into "seeing" vibration, color, and movement where there was none.”
Victor Vasarely (b. 1908)
Richard Anusziewicz
Bridget Riley
Ad Reinhardt
Kenneth Noland
Larry Poons
“Bridget Riley; Richard Anuszkiewicz”
“The laws of optics are very much at play in the work of Bridget Riley (b. 1931), as seen in Blaze I(1962) and Current (1964) [see illustration 33], paintings which consist of precisely drawn undulating lines that, when looked at for a short time, seem to vibrate and oscillate. The same principles apply to Richard Anuszkiewicz's (b. 1930) work, for example, Splendor of Red (1965), in which he uses color and line in such a way that the work appears to flutter.”
“Victor Vasarely”
“Well known for his involvement in the inception of the Op Art movement, Victor Vasarely (b. 1908) has continued his investigation of this art style. From early Op Art works in black and white, such as Jong ("Births") (1962), to more current pieces such as VP. Stri (1973-1975) and Sinfel (1977), which incorporate color, his work seems to burst forth from the picture plane.”
Minimalism
“Minimal art, seen especially during the 1960s and into the 1970s, was a trend whereby form, especially in sculpture, was reduced even more in an effort to achieve and portray the true essence of the artist's efforts. The style of Minimalism was typically abstract, oftentimes geometric. This effort sought to distance artwork even farther from its”
“traditional associations and roots and to create works of an impersonal and anonymous nature.”
“Donald Judd”
“The use of minimal forms can be seen in the sculpture of Donald Judd (b. 1928). Untitled (1965) is made up of an aluminum beam with attached L-brackets painted red [see illustration 28]. Untitled (1973) consists of ten cubes of stainless steel with oil enamel on plexiglass, mounted vertically upon a wall.”
“Robert Morris”
“Much of the work of Robert Morris (b. 1931) done during the 1960s was of a Minimalist style. Untitled (L-Bearns) (1965), consisting of three stainless-steel L-beams placed in juxtaposition, is such a work.”
“Carl Andre”
“Another example of Minimal sculpture is a work entitled Equivalent VIII (1978), by Carl Andre (b. 1932), formed of bricks placed upon the gallery floor two deep, six across, and ten in length. In this case, in particular, it was the context in which the work was exhibited, that is, in a gallery, that allowed it to be perceived as "a work of art." The sculpture calls into question the role of the museum, typically seen as a place to house works of art. In this case, however, it is the museum that creates the work, because if Equivalent VIII were placed on the street it would likely be seen simply as a pile of bricks.”
Donald Judd
Dan Flavin
Agnes Martin
Eva Hesse
Action Sculpture: Joseph Beuys
Conceptualism: Joseph Kosuth
“Conceptual Art”
Idea as Content: Conceptualism and the Dematerialization of Form.
What is a work of art?
Many artists over that late 20thc have asked this question. Even the Conceptualists couldn't hit on a coherent definition of conceptualism.
Conceptual art marked a turning point in late twentieth-century art and ends the definable era of "modern art". Conceptual art completes the transition to a new freedom which the Impressionists began 100 years ago.
Conceptual art is more an art of ideas than of objects. This is true of all art, at an elementary level. Conceptualism emerged in the 1950's was inspired by the Dada movement of the 1920s, particularly the work of Marcel Duchamp.
Duchamp challenged established definitions and began the transition of art as ideas believing that all art is conceptual in nature. His work Fountain (1917) consists of a urinal signed 'R Mutt' . The art world was shocked. How could a mass-produced object become art simply because an artist signed it? Many such works, which Duchamp called 'readymades', separated the work of art from the 'artist's touch'.
Conceptual artists saw the increasingly commercialized art world of the 1960s. It was formal and in the case of Minimalism, it could be impersonal. Conceptual artists challenge our precepts about art and society, politics and the media. It was an international movement with a global legacy illustrated by small local participatory projects and large-scale installations at major museums and biennials. Allan Kaprow's "Happenings" launched Conceptualism as an interactive form of communication particularly important in a society that competed highly visual non-art events like men on the moon. We will look into "Happenings" in conjunction with performance art later in the course.
Conceptual artists claim that the idea is the artwork, and that once the concept has been expressed, the object is unimportant. Some objects may exist for a moment, and only notes or photograph remain to document the work without being the work itself.
Art seemed to have too-narrow limits and in reaction, Conceptualists created works of art that barely resembled what an art object was thought to be. To do this, they used semiotics, feminism and popular culture. The art displayed in galleries became simply a document of the artist's thinking. Linguistic works that assumed the form of words on a wall.
Many Conceptual artists hoped that the greater involvement of the artist's idea would lead to more participation of the viewer and would force the public out of their passive mode and make their imagination more active and reached its creative potential. What resulted was more cerebral . This art addressed connoisseurs and intellectuals rather than the general public. In itself early conceptualism was not very popular but its legacy would affect many contemporary artists and movements such as Broodthalers, Buren, Burgin, Holzer, Kosuth, Kruger, and LeWitt.