Pop art sculptures

 

HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF POP ART IN SCULPTURE

Pop art in sculpture is an artistic movement that emerged in the 1950s and reached its peak in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1960s, drawing inspiration from popular and commercial culture. It began as a response to the prevailing theories of what art, culture, and art should be. Young artists felt that what they were taught in art school and saw in museums had nothing to do with their everyday life or environment.

Instead, they used images from Hollywood films and popular culture (including comics, advertisements, product packaging, and other commercial media), deviating radically from traditional artistic techniques to create paintings and sculptures that most faithfully reflected everyday life.

The movement challenged the conventions of high art by using images from popular and mass culture. By employing imagery from pop culture in their art, often with irony, it emphasized the mundane or essential elements of any civilization. It also aimed to address the methods used by artists for mechanical reproduction or replication.


There have been many shifts in artistic trends over time, with artists constantly creating new and innovative artworks. Each piece pays homage to the past while paving the way for the future by inventing new forms. The Pop Art movement pioneered the fusion of high culture and low culture and produced some of the most memorable artworks of the 20th century. Artists from across Europe (including France, England, Italy, Sweden, and the United States) revolutionized painting and sculpture, presenting mass-produced everyday objects that had never been taken seriously as subjects or content of art.

Some of the most famous Pop Art artists include Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, Alex Katz, and Takashi Murakami.

Highly conspicuous, sculptures in this style are typically easy to spot. Pop art sculptures are often vibrant and colorful, sometimes featuring fluorescent hues, and incorporate various elements: paintings, pictorial or sculptural representations of famous characters, tags or writings, symbols, more or less abstract lines, repurposed objects, and more. The sculptures can be monumental or exaggerated in size compared to regular objects or people. Generally, they reference popular symbols or landmarks that are understandable to everyone.


 

Pop Art in English and American Pop Art

Pop Art emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and, in a different form, towards the late 1950s in the United States.

The history of Pop Art sculpture is closely linked to the overall history of the Pop Art movement. Most early Pop Art artists were both painters and sculptors, such as Andy Warhol, who created paintings, screenprints, and sculptures. One of his famous works is the Campbell's Soup Cans from 1962.

What characterizes this movement is the role of consumer society, or mass consumption. This is the principle that American artists will highlight. They draw inspiration from advertisements, comics, television, and other forms of popular culture. Eventually, the movement expanded and influenced other areas such as fashion, architecture, and design.


 

AMERICAN POP ART

CONTEMPORARY POP ART SCULPTURE

Techniques

CONTEMPORARY SCULPTORS

Eduardo Paolozzi (1924 - 2005)

An important figure in the post-war British avant-garde was Scottish sculptor and artist Eduardo Paolozzi. He is considered one of the pioneers of Pop Art. His collage "I'm a Rich Man's Plaything" combined elements of popular culture, including pulp novel covers, Coca-Cola advertisements, and conscription posters, and became a significant foundational artwork of the Pop Art movement. The piece is an excellent example of the darker side of British Pop Art, which focused more on the contrast between the glamour and abundance of American pop culture and the economic and political hardship of British reality. Paolozzi emphasized the influence of technology and popular culture on high art, being a member of loosely affiliated independent groups.

 

Claes Oldenbourg (1929 - 2022)

American sculptor Claes Oldenburg is known for his large-scale reproductions of everyday objects used in public art installations. Soft and sculpted versions of everyday objects are another important theme in his work. Oldenburg is famous for his humorous sculptures of food and inanimate objects. His renowned collection of such works was first exhibited in 1961 in the artist's installation called "The Store" in New York's Lower East Side. Oldenburg created plaster sculptures of strawberry shortcake and candied apples for the project.

 

Robert Indiana (1928 - 2018)

American artist Robert Indiana was part of the Pop Art movement. In 1964, he developed his iconic image "LOVE" in the form of a card to give to various friends and acquaintances in the art world. In 1965, Robert Indiana was commissioned to create the annual Christmas card artwork for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Indiana submitted three variations of a 12-inch square oil painting on canvas based on a photograph of "LOVE." The museum chose red, blue, and green as the most powerful color combination. The artwork quickly rose to the top of the museum's all-time popular charts. In 1966, while continuing to work on the "LOVE" series, Indiana collaborated with Marian Goodman of Multiples, Inc. to create the first aluminum "LOVE" sculpture. Indiana later created the first large-scale "LOVE" sculpture in solid corten steel in 1970.


At Carré d'artistes, you can discover Pop Art sculptors such as Floh, Sgarra, and others.