Art 271 Pop Art

ART 271Ch. 19 Pop Art

LOOKING AHEAD

Today: Lecture on Assemblage, Happenings, Pop Art: Ch. 19

Tues. 11/17: Film: Andy Warhol. Also, discussion about MAG Paper due Thurs. Dec. 3rd

Thurs. 11/19: Ch. 20, Sixties Abstraction: Minimalism

REMINDER: NO CLASS WEEK OF NOV 24

1950s & 1960s Beat Background Assemblage Happenings Pop Art

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: 1950S CONVENTIONAL AMERICA: EMPHASIS ON THE NUCLEAR FAMILY: TV’S ‘LEAVE IT TO BEAVER’

1950S BEAT GENERATION BACKGROUND

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.”

– Howl, 1955

Allen Ginsberg, Howl, 1955

1950S BEAT CULTURE BACKGROUNDON THE ROAD, 1957

For: Jazz Zen Buddhism Experimentation

Against: Conformity Materialism Mainstream

ART MOVEMENT: ASSEMBLAGE (ALSO CALLED NEO-DADA)

Artists gather seemingly random objects and put them together in unruly compositions to see what kind of meanings might emerge

Emphasis on everyday surroundings for subject matter

Create their works from the “refuse” of modern society

Artists: Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns Influences: Composer John Cage, Artist Marcel

Duchamp (Dada)

MORRIS LOUIS, SARABAND, 1959, OVER 8’ X 12’

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, CANYON, 1959, JASPER JOHNS, THREE FLAGS, 1958, ENCAUSTIC ON CANVAS

MARCEL DUCHAMP, BICYCLE WHEEL, 1913 & FOUNTAIN, 1917 READYMADES

JOHN CAGE, 1952

composer known for 4’ 33” – silent piece

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925-2008)

19.28, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, BED, COMBINE PAINTING: OIL AND PENCIL ON PILLOW, QUILT, AND SHEET ON WOOD SUPPORTS, MOMA

“Combine” – combination of painting and sculpture

19.29, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, MONOGRAM, 1955-59COMBINE - COMBINATION OF PAINTING & SCULPTURE

19.30, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, ESTATE, 1963. OIL ON SILKSCREEN INK ON CANVAS, 8’ X 5’10”

JASPER JOHNS (B. 1930)

ASSEMBLAGE

Both Johns and Rauschenberg move away from individual personal expression and fixed identity associated with Abstract Expressionism toward an identity shaped by factors from the outside environment.

19.31, JASPER JOHNS, FLAGS, 1954-55. ENCAUSTIC OIL AND COLLAGE ON FABRIC MOUNTED ON PLYWOOD. MOMA

19.32, JASPER JOHNS, TARGET WITH PLASTER CASTS, 1955. ENCAUSTIC AND COLLAGE ON CANVAS WITH WOOD CONSTRUCTION AND PLASTER CASTS. 51 X 44 X 3 ½ INCHES

ART MOVEMENT: HAPPENINGS

Purpose: to call into question the idea that a work of art was an enduring record of artistic genius

Sought to integrate art with life and extend art into a theatrical situation

Approach: Ephemeral works; chance; mixed media

**Audience is necessary to “activate” the work of art

Influenced by: John Cage Dadaism (Duchamp) Action Painting

Artist: Allan Kaprow

HAPPENINGS, ALLAN KAPROW, YARD, 1961

Early to mid 1960s

Name Happening from Allan Kaprow’s 1st show at N.Y.’s Reuben Gallery 1959.

HANS NAMUTH, JACKSON POLLOCK AT WORK, 1950

ALLAN KAPROW, YARD, 1961, HAPPENING: ENVIRONMENTAL ARTWORK ACTIVATED BY PERFORMERS & VIEWERS.

19.36, ALLAN KAPROW, PHOTOGRAPH FROM HOUSEHOLD, A HAPPENING COMMISSIONED BY CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 1964

ART MOVEMENT: POP ART (1960S)

Backdrop was rise of consumer culture/ advertising/ celebrity

Pop Art was the union of art and popular culture. They embraced mass culture

Deal with the “new”, the “store-bought”

Pop artists borrowed images that were mass produced and made them repetitive

British Pop Art came first: Richard Hamilton American Pop Art: Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy

Warhol

POP ART

Pop artists made an effort to make viewers aware of the extent to which advertising and the production/consumption cycle dominated everyday life

America’s shared knowledge no longer came from “high culture” sources like literature, mythology, or religion, but rather from television, movies, and advertisements. Pop artists reflected this by blurring the distinction between art and consumption.

The movement examined the effects of consumerism on human thought, emotion, and creativity. It posed the question: what is more important, the thing or its image?

BRITISH POP

19.19, RICHARD HAMILTON, JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES TODAY’S HOMES SO DIFFERENT, SO APPEALING?, 1956, COLLAGE, 10” X 9”

1960SAMERICAN POP

CLAES OLDENBURG, SOFT TYPEWRITER, 1963

CLAES OLDENBURG SOFT PAY TELEPHONE, 1963

“Basically collectors want nudes…so I have supplied for them nude cars, nude telephones, nude electric plugs, nude switches…”

19.41, CLAES OLDENBURG, THE STORE, 1961

CLAES OLDENBURG, INSTALLATION, GREEN GALLERY, NY, 1962

19.43, CLAES OLDENBURG, GEOMETRIC MOUSE, SCALE A, 1969-71, ALUMINUM, STEEL, AND PAINT, 12’ TALL, WALKER ART CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS

23.21, CLAES OLDENBURG, BATCOLUMN, 1977, CHICAGO

23.22, CLAES OLDENBURG, SPOONBRIDGE AND CHERRY, 1985-88. ALUMINUM, STAINLESS STEEL, AND PAINT. WALKER ART CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)PHOTO: 1985

ROY LICHTENSTEIN, OH, JEFF…I LOVE YOU, TOO…BUT.., 1964, 48” X 48”

ROY LICHTENSTEIN, BLAM, 1962

ROY LICHTENSTEIN, IMAGE DUPLICATOR, 1963

MORRIS LOUIS, SARABAND, 1959, OVER 8’ X 12’ LICHTENSTEIN, OK HOT SHOT, 1963

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987) SELF PORTRAIT, 1960

ANDY WARHOL, SELF PORTRAIT, 1967

If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am…There’s nothing behind it.-Warhol

ANDY WARHOL, UNTITLED (SHOES), 1956

ANDY WARHOL, ROLL OF BILLS, 1962

ANDY WARHOL, 32 CAMPBELL’S SOUP CANS, 1961-2, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, EACH 20 X 16”

19.58, ANDY WARHOL, INSTALLATION VIEW OF CAMPBELL’S SOUP CANS, FERUS GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, 1962

19.57, ANDY WARHOL, 210 COKE BOTTLES, 1962

“A coke is a Coke & no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good”

ANDY WARHOL, AMBULANCE DISASTER, 1963

ANDY WARHOL, BLACK AND WHITE DISASTER, 1962

“The more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better & emptier you feel”.-Warhol

ANDY WARHOL, ELECTRIC CHAIR, 1964

ANDY WARHOL, BIRMINGHAM RACE RIOT, 1964

ANDY WARHOL, THE WEEK THAT WAS, 1963

19.59, ANDY WARHOL, MARILYN MONROE, 1962, SILKSCREEN INK ON SYNTHETIC OIL, ACRYLIC, AND SILKSCREEN ENAMEL ON CANVAS, 20 X 16”

ANDY WARHOL, MONROE DIPTYCH, 1962