This document provides an overview of American Pop Art, which originated in the 1950s-60s as a response to post-World War II consumer culture and the rise of mass media. Pop artists like Tom Wesselmann and George Segal embraced popular imagery and objects from advertisements and media rather than pursuing abstract expressionism. Wesselmann's still life paintings depicted idealized advertisements rather than objects, while Segal created life-sized plaster figures placed in real environments. Together, these pop artists reflected the new "mediated reality" constructed through mass consumerism and mass media in postwar America.

1. American Pop Art
Art
109A:
Art
since
1945
Westchester
Community
College
Fall
2012
Dr.
Melissa
Hall

2. Origins
Pop
art
originated
with
the
BriEsh
Independent
Group
Eduardo Paolozzi, I was a Rich Man’s
Plaything, 1947 Richard
Hamilton,
Just
what
is
it
that
makes
today’s
homes
so
different,
so
appealing?
1956
Tate Gallery

3. Rela,ves
AffiniEes
with
French
Nouveau
Réalisme
Raymond
Hains,
,
Pour
la
Paix
La
Démocra;e
le
Progrés
Social
1959
Arman,
Accumula;on,
1961

4. Precursors
Neo-­‐Dada
Junk
Art
Assemblage
Happenings

5. Pop
“Pop is everything art hasn’t
been for the last two decades . . .
It springs newborn out of a
boredom with the finality and
oversaturation of abstract
expressionism . . . Stifled by this
rarefied atmosphere, some
young painters turn back to some
less exalted things like Coca-
Cola . . .The self-conscious brush
stroke and the even more self
conscious drip are not central to
its generation. Impasto is visual
indigestion.”
Robert Indiana
Robert Indiana’s Love sculpture on 6th Ave NYC

6. Cultural
Perspec,ves:
Pop
arEsts
were
responding
to
the
rapid
growth
of
consumer
adverEsing

7. Consumerism
“American economic success
hinged on mass consumerism and
a burgeoning military-industrial
complex . . . . To make certain the
nation was never again infected by
economic depression, Americans
were urged to go on a shopping
spree: buying new cars, suburban
homes, washing machines,
refrigerators, and television sets.
To ensure its global economic
dominance, particularly against
communism, the nation
dramatically enlarged its defense
industry, and US corporations and
consumer products (Coca-Cola,
Marlboros, TV) increasingly Vintage postcard for Garden State Plaza, New Jersey
penetrated foreign markets.” Image source: http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Erika Doss, Twentieth Century American
Art, Oxford History of Art, Oxford
University Press, 2002, p. 125.

8. Mass
Media
And
to
the
advent
of
mass
media
technologies
While only 0.5% of U.S.
households had a television set
in 1946, 55.7% had one in 1954,
and 90% by 1962
1950s television set
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Television_set_from_the_early_1950s.jpg

9. Media
Mass
Media
Mass
media
transforms
free
ciEzens
into
“consumers”
Typical American Family, 1950s
Image source:
http://www.noozhawk.com/green_hawk/article/
050610_energy_toll_of_televisions_328500_watts_and_counting/

10. Mass
Media
Robert
F.
Kennedy:
first
“television”
president
Media
has
the
power
to
shape
global
poliEcs
Televised debate between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy, 1960
Image source:
http://jeremywaite.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/how-will-your-name-be-remembered/

11. MediaStudies
Marshall
McLuhan,
“father”
of
Media
Studies
Marshall Macluhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964

12. Avant
Garde
and
Kitsch
While
purified
abstracEon
disdained
popular
culture,
Pop
art
embraced
it
wholeheartedly
“Clement Greenberg and most of
the abstract expressionists had
always maintained a rigidly elitist
stance toward vernacular
culture . . .”
Tony Scherman
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/
ah/2001/1/2001_1_68.shtml
Clement Greenberg looking at a painting by Ken Noland
Image source: http://www.theslideprojector.com/art1/art1twoday/art1lecture9.html

13. Avant
Garde
and
Kitsch
The
culture
of
“kitsch”
that
Clement
Greenberg
had
derided
in
1939
had
reached
a
new
level
of
pervasiveness
and
intensity
“By 1960 Greenberg’s kitsch—
television, advertising, magazines,
movies, and other mass media—
had lodged itself deeply in
America’s consciousness. Media-
generated imagery was too
urgent, too omnipresent, for artists
to ignore. “
Tony Scherman
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/
ah/2001/1/2001_1_68.shtml

14. A
New
Reality
“The Pop artists . . . . were
responding to the new American
visual landscape, a vista of
advertising, billboards, commercial
products, automobiles, strip malls,
fast food, television, and comic
strips. They therefore took print, film,
and television images from media-
based reality and transformed them
into art, often through various
mechanical means. Their pictures
were often images of images, copies
of copies, a twice-removed effect that
echoed the techniques of mass
production, the media and
marketing.”
First Macdonalds, San Bernardino, California
Lisa Phillips, The American Century: Art & Culture
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:First_McDonalds,_San_Bernardino,_California.jpg
1950-2000, Whitney Museum/W.W. Norton, 1999, p.
114.

15. Tom
Wesselmann
Tom
Wesselman
captures
the
media-­‐
saturated
reality
of
postwar
American
society
in
a
series
of
sEll
lives
from
the
1960’s
Tom
Wesselmann,
S;ll
Life
#24,
1962,
Nelson
Atkins
Museum
Image
source:
h^p://www.greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Images/Ecology/24.php

16. S,ll
Life
SEll
Life:
an
arrangement
of
“things”
Daniel Spoerri, Kichka's Breakfast I, 1960 Raphaelle Peale , Still Life with Cake, 1818
Museum of Modern Art Metropolitan Museum

17. Tom
Wesselmann,
S;ll
Life
#24,
1962,
Nelson
Atkins
Museum
Image
source:
h^p://www.greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Images/Ecology/24.php

18. Tom
Wesselmann
Wesselmann’s
sEll
lives
are
not
pictures
of
“things”
but
of
media
adverEsements
for
things
Tom Wesselmann’s Still Life #35 (1963) at L&M Arts
Image source:
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson4-17-06_detail.asp?
picnum=19

19. Tom
Wesselmann,
S;ll
Life
#24,
1962,
Nelson
Atkins
Museum
Image
source:
h^p://www.greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Images/Ecology/24.php

20. Tom
Wesselmann,
S;ll
Life
#24,
1962,
Nelson
Atkins
Museum
Image
source:
h^p://www.greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Images/Ecology/24.php

21. Tom
Wesselmann,
Still
Life
#36,
1964
Whitney
Museum

22. Tom
Wesselmann
Similar
to
Jasper
Johns’
Flag
–
pictures
of
images
rather
than
things
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-5, Museum of Modern Art

23. Mediated
Reality
Pop
art
took
the
“second
hand”
reality
of
media
culture
as
its
subject
ma^er

24. Mediated
Reality
Mediated
reality
refers
to
a
kind
of
pre-­‐processed
reality,
delivered
through
controlled
media
outlets
(radio;
TV,
adverEsing)
Inventor Hugo Gernsback with his T.V. Glasses. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt/
Time & Life Pictures/Getty Imagesene 01, 1963

25. Mediated
Reality
Pictures
of
pictures,
rather
than
things
Mediated Reality, by Barry Carlton
Image source: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5215460&size=lg
Thomas de Zengotita, Mediated: The
Hidden Effects of Media on People,
Places, and Things (Bloomsbury, 2005)

26. Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #28, 1963

27. Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #30, 1963
Museum of Modern Art

30. Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #57, 1964
Whitney Museum

31. Titian , Venus of Urbino, 1538

32. Willem De Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52
Museum of Modern Art

33. Fe,shism
The
figures
are
typically
faceless,
with
selecEve
emphasis
on
feEshized
body
parts
(lips;
nipples)
Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude, 1964

34. Fe,shism
The
flat
hard
edge
shapes
mimic
the
cool
impersonal
style
of
commercial
adverEsing
–
and
contemporary
hard
edge
abstracEon
Ellsworth Kelly, Blue Green Red, 1962-3
Metropolitan Museum Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #59, 1965
Hirshhorn Museum

35. Walk-­‐In
Environments
Wesselmann
also
did
“walk-­‐in”
environments
Tom Wesselmann, Bathtub 3, 1963
Museum Ludwig

36. Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #48, 1963
Image source: http://www.life.com/image/80663562

37. George
Segal
Figures
made
from
plaster
casts
of
real
people
and
placed
in
actual
environments
George Segal, Bus, 1962
Hirshhorn Museum

38. Mark Rothko called them walk-in
Edward Hopper paintings
Edward Hopper, Night Hawks, 1942
George Segal, Diner, 1964
Walker Art Center

39. Environments
Segal’s
sculptures
allow
the
viewer
to
enter
the
work
and
engage
with
it
as
an
experience
George Segal, Three people on four benches, 1979

40. George
Segal
Segal
is
oien
associated
with
the
Pop
Art
movement
because
his
sejngs
evoke
American
consumer
culture
George Segal, Tar Roofer, 1964
With Robert Indiana’s Love paintings

41. “In Segal’s work . . . the readymade
settings . . . are more vivid, even more
‘alive’ than the plastercast figures
which surround them. Here, the world
of things seems to participate in the
evacuation of selfhood. It is those
things, Segal suggests, rather than
human agency, which constitute a
public world.”
David Joselit, American Art Since 1945, Thames &
Hudson, 2003, p. 75
George Segal, Cinema, 1963
Albright Knox Gallery

42. Roy
Lichtenstein
Roy
Lichtenstein
began
as
an
abstract
painter
Roy Lichtenstein, Untitled, 1959

43. Roy
Lichtenstein
His
involvement
with
Allan
Kaprow,
Jim
Dine,
Claes
Oldenberg,
and
George
Segal,
inspired
him
to
explore
popular
imagery
Roy Lichtenstein, Refrigerator, 1962

44. Roy
Lichtenstein
This
painEng
was
based
on
an
adverEsement
for
a
vacaEon
resort
in
the
Poconos
Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with a Ball, 1961
Museum of Modern Art

45. Roy
Lichtenstein
He
didn’t
just
incorporate
the
image
into
a
collage
the
way
the
Independent
Group
did
Eduardo Paolozzi, I was a Rich Man’s
Plaything, 1947
Tate Gallery Richard
Hamilton,
Just
what
is
it
that
makes
today’s
homes
so
different,
so
appealing?
1956

46. Roy
Lichtenstein
Instead,
he
faithfully
duplicated
the
image
“The closer my work is to the
original the more threatening and
critical the content.”
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with a Ball, 1961
Museum of Modern Art

47. Roy
Lichtenstein
He
used
a
projector
to
copy
his
source
images

48. Roy
Lichtenstein
He
used
Ben-­‐Day
dots
to
create
haliones
Roy Lichtenstein, Magnifying Glass, 1963

50. Roy
Lichtenstein
His
mechanical,
impersonal
approach
was
the
complete
opposite
of
“acEon
painEng”

51. Roy
Lichtenstein
“Lichtenstein
.
.
.
rebelled
into
impersonality
.
.
.
he
put
the
copy
into
a
projector
and
traced
the
magnified
image
onto
a
canvas
for
the
outline
of
his
painEng.
His
trademark
Ben
Day
dots
(the
Eny
dots
used
by
printers
and
cartoonists
for
shading)
made
his
canvases
look
printed,
not
painted.
“I
wanted
to
look
programmed,”
he
told
an
interviewer.
The
hand,
bearer
of
individuality,
was
feEshized
by
abstract
expressionism.
Pop
slapped
it
away.”
Tony
Sherman,
"When
Pop
Turned
the
Artworld
Upside
Down"
Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with a Ball, 1961
Museum of Modern Art

52. Roy
Lichtenstein
The
banality
of
his
subject
ma^er
was
equally
shocking
Roy Lichtenstein, Refrigerator, 1962 Roy Lichtenstein, Standing Rib, 1962
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

53. Roy
Lichtenstein
It
seemed
to
be
the
anEthesis
of
the
heroic
content
of
Abstract
Expressionism
Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimus, 1950-51
Museum of Modern Art

54. Lichtenstein’s
use
of
popular
imagery
and
impersonal
strategies
challenged
accepted
aestheEc
values
in
several
ways:
• Originality:
by
using
“readymade”
imagery,
Lichtenstein
challenged
expectaEons
about
“originality”
(the
Etle
of
Michael
Lobel’s
book
on
Lichtenstein
is
“Image
Duplicator”)
• Significant
Subject
MaMer:
while
the
Abstract
Expressionists
sought
“tragic
themes”
Lichtenstein’s
subject
ma^er
comes
from
the
vulgar
realm
of
popular
culture
• Individual
style:
instead
of
a
personal
style,
Lichtenstein
“paints
like
a
machine”:
he
literally
copied
his
images
using
a
projector,
and
he
used
the
commercial
technique
of
Ben-­‐day
dots
to
create
half-­‐tones
The
deadpan,
impersonal
style
of
Pop
art,
along
with
its
unashamed
embrace
of
popular
culture
and
a
figuraEve
style,
was
in
every
way
a
rejecEon
of
the
cherished
principals
of
the
Abstract
Expressionist
generaEon

55. Roy
Lichtenstein
Lichtenstein
is
best
known
for
his
painEngs
of
comic
books
Roy Lichtenstein, Look Mickey, 1961
National Gallery of Art

56. Roy
Lichtenstein
Many
of
them
were
based
on
the
popular
DC
comic
book
series
Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl, 1963
Museum of Modern Art

57. Roy
Lichtenstein
Lichtenstein
claimed
to
be
interested
in
the
form
rather
than
the
content
“I paint my own pictures upside
down or sideways. I often don't
even remember what most of them
are about. I obviously know in the
beginning what I'm painting, and
that it will be funny or ironic. But I
try to suppress that while I'm doing
them. The subjects aren't what hold
my interest.”
http://
www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/
kimmelman1.htm
Roy Lichtenstein, Hopeless, 1963
Kunstmuseum, Basel

58. Roy
Lichtenstein
But
the
comics
he
used
epitomized
the
gender
stereotypes
of
the
era

59. Roy
Lichtenstein
In
1962
Lichtenstein
began
his
series
of
war
painEngs
based
on
the
DC
Comic
All
American
Men
of
War
Roy Lichtenstein, Brattata, 1962

60. Roy
Lichtenstein
The
theme
was
topical
in
1962
since
the
United
States
was
at
war
in
Vietnam
Vietnam War fighter jets

61. Roy
Lichtenstein
In
contrast
to
the
female
“damsels
in
distress,”
the
men
in
this
series
are
acEon
heroes
fighEng
wars
in
vaguely
specified
locaEons
Roy Lichtenstein, Live Ammo, 1962

62. Roy Lichtenstein, Live Ammo, (Blang!), 1962

63. Roy Lichtenstein, Blam, 1962
Yale University Art Gallery

64. Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam, 1963
Tate Gallery

65. Detachment
The
“dramas”
Lichtenstein
presents
are
deeply
tragic
human
dramas:
love
and
war
Roy Lichtenstein, Blam, 1962
Yale University Art Gallery

66. Detachment
Yet
they
are
chillingly
devoid
of
emoEon
“Lichtenstein was not painting
things but signs of things . . . . By
turning everything into a form that
can be reproduced in newspapers
or on television, the media
homogenize experience . . .
Lichtenstein explored this situation
in a cool style that he has
consistently described in terms of
its formal qualities, as if he had little
interest in the subject matter . . . .
Lichtenstein’s detachment from the
explicit subject is the real subject of
his work.”
Jonathan Fineberg, Art Since 1945,
p. 261
Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl, 1963
Museum of Modern Art

67. Detachment
Like
Jasper
Johns
and
Robert
Rauschenberg,
Lichtenstein
was
appropriaEng
material
from
everyday
life
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-5
Robert Rauschenberg, Retroactive, 1964

68. Detachment
Like
them,
too,
he
was
painEng
images
rather
than
things
"You know, all my subjects are always two-
dimensional or at least they come from
two-dimensional sources. In other words,
even if I'm painting a room, it's an image of
a room that I got from a furniture ad in a
phone book, which is a two-dimensional
source. This has meaning for me in that
when I came onto the scene, abstract
artists like Frank Stella or Ellsworth Kelly
were making paintings the point of which
was that the painting itself became an
object, a thing, like a sculpture, in its own
right, not an illusion of something else. And
what I've been trying to say all this time is
similar: that even if my work looks like it
depicts something, it's essentially a flat
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-5
two-dimensional image, an object."
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/
kimmelman1.htm
Robert Rauschenberg, Retroactive, 1964

69. Challenging
Aesthe,c
Values
Lichtenstein
quesEoned
the
disEncEon
between
abstracEon
and
commerical
illustraEon
-­‐-­‐
and
between
“high”
and
“low”
art
Piet Mondrian, Composition No. 10 (Pier and
Ocean), 1915
Roy Lichtenstein, Golf Ball, 1962

70. Cartoonized
“Masterpieces”
Isn’t
a
Mondrian
just
like
a
flag
-­‐-­‐
an
object,
a
thing,
a
design?
Roy Lichtenstein, Non-Objective II, 1964

71. Cartoonized
“Masterpieces”
DS: And what about the paintings which
are adaptations of fine art images, your
Picassos and your Mondrians?
R L: I kind of wish you'd explain them to
me, because it really doesn't do the
same thing. It takes something which is
already art and apparently degrades it.
It's like a five-and-dime-store Picasso or
Mondrian. But at the same time it isn't
supposed to be non-art. It's a way of
saying that Picasso is really a cartoonist
and Mondrian is too, maybe. I don't
really know. I don't think I understand it,
but I think that it's a way of making
cliches that occur in Picasso more
cliched - a way of re-establishing them
but also making them not a cliche. I
think that it does just that.
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/sylvester1.htm
Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with Beach Ball, 1977

72. Cartoonized
“Masterpieces”
Lichtenstein
also
“cartoonized”
the
signature
brushstroke
of
Abstract
Expressionism
Roy Lichtenstein, Yellow Brushstroke I, 1965

73. “What Lichtenstein has given us is
a set of images which look like the
kind of painting that had been so
recognizable to American
audiences by the mid-1950s, called
Action Painting or Abstract
Expressionism. But it's an image of
that work. It's a completely flat
canvas . . . there's no trace of the
artist's hand there at all . . . so we
know this is a kind of work of art
that makes reference to
mechanical printing. And that was
the last thing the Abstract
Expressionists wanted. They
resisted mass culture . . . At the
same time that this looks like an
image of an abstract painting, he's
made a very successful kind of
abstract painting, with these
wonderful tones of white and red
and yellow. So he's doing both at
once. He's able to parody the work
of the generation that preceded
him. But he's also found a way in
that process to make his own really
Roy Lichtenstein, Little Big Painting, 1965
powerful abstract composition.” Whitney Museum of Art
Michael Lobel
Whitney Museum of Art

74. Challenging
Aesthe,c
Values
Is
there
really
any
difference
between
a
dot,
a
drip,
a
spla^er,
or
a
brushstroke?
“DS: Because those brush-strokes are
cliches, aren't they? They've become
cliches of contemporary art. I suppose that
Rauschenberg was the first person to
comment on this when he made a very
slashing dribbly abstract expressionist
painting and then made a duplicate of it.
That, I take it, was the first move in this
direction.”
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/sylvester1.htm

75. Andy
Warhol
Andy
Warhol
was
born
in
Pi^sburgh
and
studied
commercial
art
at
the
Carnegie
InsEtute
of
Technology
Andy Warhol, Photo Booth Self-Portrait, c. 1963
Metropolitan Museum

76. Andy
Warhol
Launched
a
successful
career
in
New
York
as
an
award
winning
illustrator
and
designer
Andy Warhol, Shoe of the Evening, 1955
Museum of Modern Art

77. Andy
Warhol
In
1960
he
began
painEng
pictures
based
on
banal
subjects
such
as
adverEsements
and
newspaper
tabloids
Andy Warhol, Dr. Scholls, 1960
Metropolitan Museum
Andy Warhol, Oil Heater, 1961
Museum of Modern Art

78. Andy
Warhol
He
also
began
exploring
cartoons,
but
gave
them
up
when
he
saw
Lichtenstein’s
work
Andy Warhol, Dick Tracy, 1960

79. Andy
Warhol
The
early
works
were
loosely
painted,
with
drippy
paint
that
made
them
look
like
“art”
Andy Warhol, Before and After I, 1960
Metropolitan Museum

80. Andy
Warhol
In
later
versions
he
explored
more
impersonal
methods
that
internalized
the
mechanical
style
of
commercial
imagery
“The reason I’m painting this
way is that I want to be a
machine, and I feel that
whatever I do and do machine-
like is what I want to do.”
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, Before and After II, 1960

81. Andy
Warhol
The
discovery
of
the
photo
silkscreen
process
allowed
Warhol
to
create
impersonal
painEng
using
a
mechanical
method
of
mass
produced
recycled
media
imagery
“That’s probably one reason
I’m using silk screens now. I
think somebody should be able
to do all my paintings for me ”
Andy Warhol

82. Jackson
Pollock:
“I
am
nature”
Andy
Warhol:
“I
want
to
paint
like
a
machine”

83. Jackson
Pollock:
“I
am
nature”
“Pop is everything art hasn’t been for
the last two decades . . . It springs
newborn out of a boredom with the
finality and oversaturation of abstract
expressionism . . . Stifled by this
rarefied atmosphere, some young
painters turn back to some less
exalted things like Coca-Cola . . .The
self-conscious brush stroke and the
even more self conscious drip are not
central to its generation. Impasto is
visual indigestion.”
Robert Indiana
Robert Indiana, Love, 1967. Screenprint
Museum of Modern Art

84. Andy
Warhol
In
1963
Warhol
began
painEng
consumer
products
like
Campbell’s
Soup
and
Coca
Cola
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Can, 1964
Silkscreen on canvas

86. Andy
Warhol
Like
Jasper
Johns’
Flag,
the
images
were
representaEons
of
familiar
symbols
–
product
labels
for
Campbell’s
soup
and
Coca
Cola
Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-55

87. Andy
Warhol
Each
canvas
is
20
X
16”
and
arranged
in
a
grid,
evoking
mass-­‐producEon
and
a
supermarket
display
The
number
32
refers
to
the
number
of
varieEes
of
soup
flavors
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup, 1962
Museum of Modern Art

88. Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup, 1962
Museum of Modern Art

89. Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup, 1962
Museum of Modern Art

90. “When you think about it, department stores are
kind of like museums.”
Andy Warhol

92. Andy
Warhol
The
Campbell’s
Soup
painEngs
were
first
exhibited
in
1962
at
the
Ferus
Gallery
in
Los
Angeles
A
nearby
gallery
filled
its
front
window
with
Campbell’s
cans
and
a
sign
that
said:
“Buy
them
cheaper
here.”

93. Andy
Warhol
The
arEst
then
began
creaEng
replicas
of
Brillo
boxes
and
other
products,
constructed
out
of
wood
Andy Warhol, Brillo, 1964. National Gallery of Canada

95. The
Readymade
“By making the cartons non-
functional and uprooting them from
their ordinary context, Warhol
forces us to look at them freshly.
They comment on the way that
commercial packaging transforms a
mundane, household product into a
glamorous, desirable commodity.
Warhol also focuses our attention
on the significance of these objects
as representatives of the
impersonal, commercialized
consumer society in which we live.”
National Gallery of Canada
Andy Warhol, Brillo (Soap Pads), 1965
Rubell Family Collection, Miami

96. The
Readymade
“People in a capitalist society . . .
begin to treat commodities as if
value inhered in the objects
themselves, rather than in the
amount of real labor expended to
produce the object . . .”
Andy Warhol, Brillo (Soap Pads), 1965
Rubell Family Collection, Miami

97. Celebri,es
In
addiEon
to
commonplace
“products,”
Warhol
also
did
portraits
of
celebriEes
Andy Warhol's Liz Taylor on display in London
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123864/3-jumble-sale-sketch-turns-Warhol-
artwork-valued-1-3m.html#ixzz1zfXUuYlT

98. Celebri,es
The
pictures
were
not
painEngs
of
“people,”
but
copies
of
their
mass-­‐
produced
publicity
photos
Andy Warhol, Liz, 1964
Metropolitan Museum

99. Celebri,es
“Liz is presented as a cultural
commodity "packaged" for public
consumption. Warhol creates icons
that reflect society's worship of the
evanescent gloss of material
culture”
http://www.ackland.org/art/exhibitions/eyeinthesky/
warhol.html
Andy Warhol, Liz, 1964
Metropolitan Museum

100. Celebri,es
The
Marilyn
series
was
also
based
on
publicity
photos,
not
“life”
Andy Warhol, Turquoise Marilyn 1962

101. Celebri,es
In
his
Gold
Marilyn,
he
treats
the
media
star
like
a
religious
icon
Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn, 1962
Museum of Modern Art

102. Celebri,es
In
his
Marilyn
Diptych
he
mimics
the
mass-­‐producEon
process
by
which
the
girl,
Norma
Jean
Baker,
was
transformed
into
media
icon
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962
Tate Gallery

103. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962
Tate Gallery

104. The
Warhol
Persona
Warhol
transformed
himself
into
a
depthless
media
icon:
an
“image,
with
no
content
Warhol became a mirror, his
conversation limited to "Oh, gee"
and "Gosh" and—rarely honestly
—"That's great.”
http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/47184/
index3.html
Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, 1987

105. The
Warhol
Persona
“The interviewer should just tell
me the words he wants me to say
and I’ll repeat them after him. I
think that would be so great
because I’m so empty I just can’t
think of anything to say.”
Andy Warhol
Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, 1986

106. The
Warhol
Persona
“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.”
Andy Warhol
Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, 1983
Tate Gallery

107. James
Rosenquist
James
Rosenquist
began
his
career
as
a
commercial
billboard
painter
James Rosenquist with one of his paintings

108. James
Rosenquist
He
used
these
skills
to
create
billboard-­‐
sized
painEngs
that
drew
upon
the
imagery
and
impact
of
contemporary
adverEsing
James Rosenquist, Hey! Let’s Go for a Ride!, 1961

109. James
Rosenquist
Rosenquist’s
images
oien
juxtapose
unrelated
images,
mimicking
the
informaEon
overload
of
contemporary
society
“I’m amazed and excited and
fascinated about the way things are
thrust at us, the way this invisible
screen that’s a couple of feet in front
of our mind and our senses is
attacked by radio and television and
visual communications, through things
larger than life, the impact of things
thrown at us, at such a speed and
with such a force that painting and the
attitudes toward painting and
communication through doing a
painting now seem very old
fashioned . . .”
James Rosenquist, I Love You with My Ford 1961
James Rosenquist Moderna Museet, Stockholm

110. James Rosenquist, I Love You with My Ford 1961

111. James
Rosenquist
In
President
Elect
an
image
of
the
newly
elected
John
F.
Kennedy
is
combined
with
a
woman’s
hand
holding
a
piece
of
cake
and
a
fragment
of
a
car
James Rosenquist, President Elect, 1964
Pompidou

112. James Rosenquist, President Elect, 1964
Pompidou

113. James
Rosenquist
The
first
“ TV
President”
in
history,
Kennedy
was
an
icon
of
a
new
kind
of
media
celebrity
James Rosenquist, President Elect, 1964

114. James
Rosenquist
By
picturing
the
newly
elected
American
President
amongst
emblems
of
luxury
commodiEes,
Rosenquist
drew
a
direct
connecEon
between
“democracy”
and
“consumerism”
“The face was from Kennedy's
campaign poster. I was very
interested at that time in people
who advertised themselves.
What did they put on an
advertisement of themselves? So
that was his face. And his
promise was half a Chevrolet and
a piece of stale cake.”
James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist, President Elect, 1964

115. James
Rosenquist
Rosenquist’s
most
famous
painEng
is
his
86
foot
long
F-­‐111
-­‐-­‐
a
response
to
the
arms
race
and
American
involvement
in
Vietnam
“It is the newest, latest fighter-bomber
at this time, 1965. This first of its type
cost many million dollars. People are
planning their lives through work on
this bomber, in Texas or Long Island.
A man has a contract from the
company making the bomber, and he
plans his third automobile and his fifth
child because he is a technician and
has work for the next couple of years.
The original idea is expanded,
another thing is invented; and the
plane already seems obsolete. The James Rosenquist, F 111, 1964-65
prime force of this thing has been to Museum of Modern Art
keep people working, an economic
tool; but behind it, this is a war
machine.”
James Rosenquist

116. James Rosenquist, F 111, 1964-65
Museum of Modern Art

117. James Rosenquist, F 111, 1964-65
Museum of Modern Art

120. The Factory
Art
109A:
Art
since
1945
Westchester
Community
College
Fall
2012
Dr.
Melissa
Hall

121. The
Warhol
Persona
In
1963
Warhol
established
a
studio
at
231
East
47th
Street
which
became
known
as
the
"Factory"
Ugo Mulas, Andy Warhol at the Factory, East 47th St., New York. Image source:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/84/warholmulas.jpg/sr=1

122. The
Warhol
Persona
“It wasn't called the Factory for
nothing. It was where the
assembly-line for the
silkscreens happened. While
one person was making a
silkscreen, somebody else
would be filming a screen test.
Every day something new.”
John Cale
Gerard Malanga silk screening with Andy Warhol in the Factory, c. 1965.
Image source: http://www.wornthrough.com/2012/01/

123. The
Warhol
Persona
Warhol
treated
art
like
a
business,
and
the
Factory
operated
like
a
large
corporaEon
“Business art is the step that
comes after Art. I started as a
commercial artist, and I want to
finish as a business artist . . .
Being good in business is the
most fascinating kind of art.
During the hippie era people put
down the idea of business –
they’d say ‘Money is bad,’ and
‘Working is bad,’ but making
money is art and working is art
and good business is the best
art.”
Andy Warhol

124. Films
In
the
early
1960’s
Warhol
shiied
to
making
films
Image source: https://www2.bc.edu/~doann/andyfilms.html

125. Films
Influenced
by
John
Cage’s
aestheEc
of
“found
sound,”
the
films
did
not
have
a
plot
or
script
Andy Warhol lines up a shot during the filming of Taylor Mead's Ass at his studio, The
Factory, New York, 1964. Photograph: Fred W McDarrah/Time & Life Pictures/Getty
Image

126. Films
In
Kiss,
for
example,
the
enEre
film
consists
of
a
couple
making
out
Andy Warhol, Kiss, 1964

127. Films
Empire
is
a
staEonary
shot
of
the
Empire
State
building
that
lasts
for
eight
hours
and
five
minutes
Andy Warhol, Film Still from Empire, 1964

128. Andy Warhol, The Chelsea Grils, 1966
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvOnRdMi4OM
“With Chelsea Girls, a 1966 movie about people who hung out in
the Chelsea hotel, they made the Variety charts—and, according to
Morrissey, a profit of $100,000. They also struck the deepest nerve
to date”
http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/47184/index3.html

129. The
Velvet
Underground
Warhol
also
became
involved
in
the
music
industry,
and
sponsored
the
the
revoluEonary
pop
group
the
Velvet
Underground
1967, Andy Warhol with Nico, Lou Reed, and The Velvet Underground

130. The
Velvet
Underground
For
Warhol
and
his
circle,
the
emerging
pop
music
scene
was
the
new
avant
garde

131. The
Velvet
Underground
Rock
concerts
were
“Happenings,”
with
an
emphasis
on
experience
Beatles Concert, 1966

132. Celebrity
Warhol
himself
achieved
“rock
star”
celebrity
“In the fall of 1965, when Andy
and Edie went to his opening at
the Institute of Contemporary Art
in Philadelphia, nearly four
thousand people crushed into the
two small rooms and the staff
had to take the paintings down
for security. It was an art
opening without art.”
Jonathan Fineberg, p. 256
Andy Warhol stands in front of a limited edition serigraph of Princess Grace of Monaco
to benefit the Institute of Contemporary Art here in Philadelphia on June 1, 1984
http://www.upi.com/enl-win/e2ed527418b55cd6865c593144382a06/

133. Celebrity
“I wondered what it was that made
all those people scream,: Warhol
later recalled. “I’d seen kids scream
scream over Elvis and the Beatles
and the Stones – rock idols and
movie stars – but it was incredible to
think of it happening at an art
opening . . . But then, we weren’t
just at the art exhibit – we were the
exhibit, we were the art incarnate”
Andy Warhol, cited in Fineberg, p. 256
Beatles Concert, 1966

134. Celebrity
The
Factory
days
came
to
an
end
when
Warhol
was
the
vicEm
of
a
near
fatal
shooEng
Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, 1969, from The Sixties
Image source: http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-12-07/art/fully-booked/

135. Celebrity
The
shooter
was
Valerie
Solanos,
a
fringe
member
of
the
factory
crowd,
and
sole
member
of
a
radical
feminist
group
called
S.C.U.M.
(the
Society
for
Cujng
up
Men)
Valerie Solanos
Image source: http://hilobrow.com/2010/04/09/valerie-solanas/

136. Celebrity
Warhol’s
wounds
were
nearly
fatal,
and
the
arEst
was
scarred
for
life
Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, 1969

137. Cri,cal
Recep,on
But
Pop
art
was
hugely
successful,
and
it
changed
the
art
world
forever
“Until pop arrived, vanguard
American art had fought its battles in
private. “Up through the fifties and
even in the early sixties,” Hilton
Kramer says, “the New York galleries
showing serious art you could count
on the fingers of two hands. By the
end of the sixties, the number of
galleries had increased by four or
five hundred percent. Pop art not
only changed the tone of the art
world, it changed its size.”
”Tony Scherman, “When Pop Turned
the World Upside Down”
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/newsweekapr1966.htm

138. Cri,cal
Recep,on
In
1964
Life
magazine
asked
if
Roy
Lichtenstein
was
the
worst
arEsts
in
the
U.S.
Most
established
criEcs
thought
he
was
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lifemagroy.htm

139. “Abstract expressionism had drawn the artist’s gaze inward, to a purely subjective realm.
What was hard for its artists and ideologues to accept about pop was its reversal of this gaze,
its redirection of the artist’s awareness outward: to the teeming, exciting, vulgar new world of
early-sixties America. Pop argued that the world was worth looking at—and it won the
argument.
Tony Sherman, “When Pop Turned the World Upside Down”

140. The Death and Disaster Series
Art
109A:
Art
since
1945
Westchester
Community
College
Fall
2012
Dr.
Melissa
Hall

141. The
End
of
Camelot
Pop
art
developed
during
a
transiEonal
Eme
in
American
history
PoliEcal
AssassinaEons
John
F.
Kennedy
(1964)
Malcolm
X
(1965)
Robert
Kennedy
(1968)
MarEn
Luther
King
(1968)

142. Race
Riots
1965:
Wa^s
Race
Riots
1966:
Chicago,
New
York,
Cleveland,
BalEmore
1967:
Detroit,
Newark,
Rochester,
New
York,
Birmingham,
New
Britain
Race riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles, August 11-15, 1965 Police subdue an injured rioter during race rights riots in Newark, N.J.
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/1960.htm (Three Lions/Getty Images)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/popup?id=3371026

143. An,-­‐War
Movement
Pulitzer prize winning photograph of Kent State Massacre by Paul Filo, 1970
Vietnam War Protest in Washington, D.C. by Frank
Wolfe, October 21, 1967
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/
110/272804879_3142f28321.jpg

144. Detachment
Detachment:
A
mirror
of
society?
A
psychological
defense
mechanism?
Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with a Ball, 1961
Museum of Modern Art

145. Death
and
Disaster
Series
Andy
Warhol’s
Death
and
Disaster
series
engaged
directly
with
the
violence
of
the
era
Andy Warhol, 129 Die in Jet (Plane Crash), 1962

146. When did you start with the
“Death” series?
“I guess it was the big plane
crash picture, the front page of
a newspaper: 129 DIE. I was
also painting the Marilyns. I
realized that everything I was
doing must have been Death. It
was Christmas or Labor Day—a
holiday—and every time you
turned on the radio they said
something like, “4 million are
going to die.” That started it. But
when you see a gruesome
picture over and over again, it
doesn’t really have any effect.”
http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2404
Andy Warhol, 129 Die in Jet (Plane Crash), 1962

147. Death
and
Disaster
Series
Car
crashes
Race
riots
The
electric
chair
The
assassinaEon
of
JFK
Andy Warhol Ambulance Disaster, 1963

148. Death
and
Disaster
Series
News
photographs
photo-­‐silkscreened
onto
canvas,
with
li^le
alteraEon
Andy Warhol Ambulance Disaster, 1963

149. “We went to see Dr. No at Forty-
second Street. isaster
Series
movie,
Death
and
DIt’s a fantastic
soCar
crashes
walked outside and
cool. We
somebody threw a cherry bomb
Race
riots
right in fronthair
us, in this big crowd.
The
electric
c of
The
assassinaEon
of
JFK
And there was blood, I saw blood on
people and all over. I felt like I was
bleeding all over. I saw in the paper
last week that there are more
people throwing them—it’s just part
of the scene—and hurting people.
My show in Paris is going to be
called “Death in America.” I’ll show
the electric-chair pictures and the
dogs in Birmingham and car wrecks
and some suicide pictures.”
Andy Warhol
http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2404
Andy Warhol, White Burning Car, 1963

150. Andy Warhol, Birmingham Race Riot, 1963. Tate Gallery
Andy Warhol, Red Race Riot, 1963

151. Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1964. Tate Gallery

152. “You’d be surprised who’ll hang an electric
chair in the living room. Especially if the
background matches the drapes.”
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, Orange Disaster: Electric Chair, 1963
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=21767&searchid=15486

153. “People sometimes say the
way things happen in movies
is unreal, but actually its the
way things happen to you in
life that’s unreal. The movies
make emotions look so
strong and real, whereas
when things really do happen
to you, its like watching
television -- you don’t feel
anything.”
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, 16 Jackies, 1964
Walker Art Center

154. “During the 60s, I think,
people forgot what emotions
were supposed to be. And I
don’t think they’ve ever
remembered. I think that
once you see emotions from
a certain angle you can never
think of them as real gain.
That’s what more or less
happened to me.”
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, 16 Jackies, 1964
Walker Art Center