Pop art refers to art based on modern popular culture. When pop art first became a popular art form, it focused predominantly on commercial products and began more or less around the mid-1950s. Pop art was led by Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Roy Lichtenstein. The reason this type of art made such a stir was particularly due to the fact that pop artists created art that was unlike the art that people had ever seen before.
As such pop art moved from being predominantly American to Britain and eventually to the rest of the world. South African contemporary pop art is quite unique in its offering as well, ranging from minimalistic art to wavy lines and the like.
In terms of the pop artists that created South African pop artworks, all of these pop artists tried to showcase a mindset of the society that they found themselves in through their paintings.
All pop artists chose to move away from the themes classically explored by fine art such as morality, classic history, religion and myths. All that pop artists want to do is create art that connects with the people of their time.
Needless to say, contemporary artists look at everyday objects and people, and create art that interest and excites them. It is the same with our South African contemporary pop artists.
Some South African contemporary artists whose names you should be familiar with is Blessings Ngobeni as well as William Kentridge.
Blessings Ngobeni
Blessings Ngobeni is a pop artist who uses a big canvas to depict symbols of slavery, corruption as well as violence. When it comes to Blessings' paintings, the paintings should always be left to personal interpretation.
William Kentridge
William Kentridge has produced the Drawing of Felix in Exile. This contemporary artist uses a variety of different mediums, and this perhaps is the reason why his work, like that of the Drawing of Felix in Exile, has allowed him to work with many international artists.
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Where to Find Pop Art in South Africa?
If you are in search of pop art in South Africa, you need to be able to identify what pop art is? Pop art blurs the idea of hierarchy entirely from art and culture. All art forms are celebrated such as a pencil or a Monet water lilies painting. Pop art also entails depicting everyday objects. Inspiration for pop art can be found almost anywhere like by finding soup cans in the kitchen or even a bar of soap in the bathroom and then creating art by depicting these soup cans or even the bar of soap.
Another core principle of pop art is that it is created by borrowing inspiration from any source. In fact, pop art is visible because it is a splash of popular culture that has simply been presented on a canvas.
You can even notice pop art as pop artists note that there is a connection in everything, and much of the work that pop artists do in fact show the connection between different aspects of the picture.
Many pop artists create artworks that seem almost devoid of any emotion and the art seems almost cold and emotionless. In fact, by viewing contemporary art, you often barely find out anything about the artist.
Looking for contemporary artworks to invest in, you can visit the SINGULART website that encourages you to surround yourself with art that you will love.
If you search the pop art category on the SINGULART website, you will find:
- Minimalistic artwork by Astrid Stoeppel
- Words and phrases that have meaning by Eric Stefanski
- A vast array of oil paintings by Angie Wright
More About Pop Artist's Art Form
Most pop artists believe that their pop art is a celebration of capitalism. Pop artists further believe that through their art they can sell products like Coco Cola and soup cans. Creating a hype for products like Campbell's soup is one thing that pop artists have become famous for.
Pop artists speak about their love for pop art specifically because pop art allows them to express themselves in a vast variety of ways. Many pop artists tend to be recognised solely due to their bold colour usage, repetitive prints, high contrast and collage/poster-like appearance.
Another reason why most pop artists are so passionate about their art form is because pop art has challenged the fine arts of the past but still in doing so showed great respect for it. It was pop artists' dream to link fine art to the mass-produced culture of the time.
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Pop Art Examples
As much as we try to take a South African stance on pop art, it's hard to explore pop art examples in South Africa without exploring international pop artists who made their own mark on the pop art scene and inspired our South African pop artists to follow suit.
Warhol
Andy Warhol (later shortened to Warhol) was an American born pop artist whose mother steered him in the right direction towards pursuing his artistic talent. Since Warhol was often ill as a child, he would spend his time in bed collecting pictures from magazines and listening to advertisements on the radio. It was this consumption of media forms that led him to create his type of pop art.
Contrary to popular belief, Warhol did get formal art education and studied at the college of pictorial design. He became a successful commercial illustrator after moving to New York where he worked his way up by working for some grand publications such as Glamour magazine, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the New Yorker.
It was Warhol who was interested in removing evidence of the artist hand in his work and thus he came up with plenty of techniques to avoid brushstrokes. The avoidance of brushstrokes was what led Warhol to become a famous pop art style artist.
Warhol's main inspiration was consumer goods and commercial items. His pop art style led him in the direction of printed shipping labels, matchbooks, Coca Cola bottles, coffee labels etc.
His top artworks include:
- Campbell's soup I (1968),
- Coca cola 3 (Coke bottle image) (1962),
- Gold Marilyn Monroe (1962),
- Brillo Boxes (1964), Mao (1973),
- Orange car crash fourteen times (1963)
Buysile Mandindi "Billy"
Buysile "Billy" Mandindi was known as not only the artist but the activist as well. His main fame came from his participation in 1989's landmark protest that was held in Cape Town. It was after the protest in Cape Town that he created a linocut in celebration of the spirit of freedom. What made this award-winning artist's work so striking was the fact that he combined comic figures and warm colours to create magnificent results.
Do you want to learn more about pop artists who made their mark in South Africa? Speak to one of our Superprof tutors who will be able to guide you.
All About Pop Art Painting
It seems fitting to know all about what makes pop art fall in the category called pop art, especially if you are looking for a career as a pop artist. When we talk about pop art we think of a mass commercial art form, but instead we should change our focus and see pop art as a movement. The movement emerged in the 1950's and become ever bigger in the 1960's mainly in America and Britain. It was only in the latter part of the 1970's that South Africans and people from other countries started taking an interest in this art movement.
The main aspect of pop art and what sets it apart from all else is the fact that pop art challenged all traditional views of what art should be. The reason for drifting away from customary art forms was that people began to feel that the art surrounding them did not in the least depict the way they saw the world around them.
Pop art was not only art that focused on more modern subject matters, but also art that took an entirely new stance in terms of the way the art was presented. The move away from traditional artistic techniques, brushstrokes, and shading styles made this art form unique but also made this art form a form of art that received much criticism.
Eventually, pop art evolved to include what was known as political pop art. Emerging in China in the 1980's, political pop art combined Western pop art with socialist realism to produce art that questioned politics. The political pop art movement moved to South Africa as well whereby the art produced questioned both the political and social climate of the country.
Whether you are a fan of pop art or not, it is here to stay.
Just search for pop art on "Google" and the results are astonishing! They might even spark a curiosity for other forms of art, such as surrealism and cubism.
Are you ready to start taking an interest in pop art?
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