Essay - Art POP Art: an Aesthetic and Historical Overview an Image...

Art

***** Art: An aesthetic and historical overview

***** image of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor—or simply the Campbell's Soup can. Repeated over ***** ***** and over again. Andy Warhol argued that through the witnessing of such repetition, which replicated yet heightened the sensation of seeing and consuming ***** works in daily life, ***** and over again, '***** better ***** emptier you feel.' But how can encouraging such sensations of emptiness be equated with art? Before the evolution of ***** Pop Art movement, headed by ***** Warhol, few critics would see such *****s of celebrities and commercial *****ifacts as worthy of hanging in a museum. But Pop Art changed not ***** the look of modern art, but also what w***** said to constitute great or high art in general. "The repetition and familiarity of endless stars' faces "(Liz, Jackie, Marilyn, Marlon, and the rest) speaks eloquently about the condition of image overload in a media saturated culture" (Hughes 1997). By realiz*****g how empty mass visions are in a museum, the viewer becomes m*****e self-critical and self-reflexive ***** his or her own life.

***** its association with *****, ***** Art as a movement actually began in Great Britain. Richard Hamilton's work, "Just What Is It that Makes Today's Home so Different, so Appealing?" is widely credited as the harbinger of ***** movement. (Biddington 2008). Hamilton later *****: "The idea was that there were certain things that were new in our visual environment, such as cinema, the jukebox, Marilyn Monroe and comics. All *****se images from popular ***** contr*****ted with the way we saw things ***** could be informed by straight - forward optical experience" ("Pop Daddy," Tate Magazine, *****). Jasper Johns ***** Robert Rauschenberg, some of ***** first Pop *****ists in America, *****re also inspired by Hamilton's work to use the ********** flag and beer cans in their paintings, prints, ***** collages (Biddington 2008).

The reason that Great Britain gave birth to the Pop Art aesthetic is that Britain had been particularly hard-hit by the effects ***** World War II, beca***** of the Blitz and the limitations placed upon consumerism and consumption due ***** rationing. The 1950s in England saw an unprecedented explosion of interest in ***** new—new th*****gs to buy, new things ***** build. This spawned an interest amongst artists "in the ***** ***** mass media, advertising, comics *****d consumer products," both in a spirit of delight as well as a ***** of criticism (She*****rer 1999). ***** Art ***** ***** fueled ***** the new youth culture ***** the era, and the music and fashion aesthetic of 'Swinging' London.

*****, some argue ***** the ***** was essentially taken over by American artists, who proved ***** responsive to its distaste for Abstract Expressionism. Later British ***** associated with the movement, such as David Hockey, insisted that they were not strictly Pop Artists, even when ***** with Warhol ***** company in the media (Lucie-Smith 199). To those who opposed Abstract *****, Pop Art initially ***** a re*****ctionary appeal because it was far more representational,