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Pop art was a post-war movement in the early 1960s in America and a decade earlier in England. Its roots can be traced all the way back to 1917 when Marcel Duchamp displayed a urinal as art. The use of the word "pop" was in reference to popular culture at the moment, which was what the art was inspired by. The art pieces ranging from painting, scultpure, and printmaking all made references to very recognizable subjects such as celebrities, home appliances, and brand logos. There was a strong emphasis in hard edges, flat areas of color, and applied paint to replicate the look of industrial printing styles. The purpose was to essentially "erase" any trace of the artist's hand and look as recognizable to the masses as possible. Most comics books are drawn in this style.

Here is a video as well as other sources for more information

https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/pop-art/m0q4mn?categoryId=art-movement

https://www.artsy.net/collection/pop-art

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/xdc974a79:pop-art/xdc974a79:pop-art-a-beginners-guide/a/pop-art

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Andy Warhol using a silkscreen to create art

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Silkscreening is one of the biggest techniques used to create pop art. Using silkscreening allowed for an endless number of repetitions and variations of one particular subject. Hence why we see so many art pieces of the same subject but in different colors right next to each other. It also created hard edges and allowed for even color distribution which produced the machine-like quality most artists were looking for.

It is quite an easy process. First, pick your canvas and subject and pick what colors you will use. Each color should have a separate silkscreen. A blocking stencil will be used to shape the subject and create the outline. Once the screen and stencils are in place, a sponge or squeegee is used to spread the ink or paint along the canvas. Repeat for each layer of color you have and once finished, pull back the sheets, and the design is left.

Here is a video of Andy Warhol using it to make a silkscreen of Marlon Brando.

https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/andy-warhol-makes-a-silkscreen/

References:

https://www.ynvisible.com/news-inspiration/what-is-screen-printing#:~:text=Screen%20printing%2C%20also%20known%20as,squeegee%20(a%20rubber%20blade)

https://www.castlefineart.com/uk/blog/all-about-silkscreens#:~:text=All%20about%20silkscreens&text=The%20first%20step%20is%20to,silkscreens%20to%20leave%20a%20design

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Pop art was created as a rejection of the style of Abstract Expressionists which emphasized that art, although abstract, was also expressive and emotional. Pop art was the dominant art style of the early 1960s.

In England, artists from the "Independent Group" critiqued British society by appropriating idealized images found in magazines of the American lifestyle and things such as the "American Dream".

In America, after World War I everything began to be mass-produced and mass marketed. Pop art emerged as a critique of this mass production and the entire consumer culture of celebrities and brands. It also made references to things like pinups and appliances to comment on the eroticism of most advertising presentations.

Some of the most recognizable subjects of pop art were: coke bottles, picnic tables, makeup, celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and more, refrigerators, convertible cars, and more.

Overall, it was a subtle critique of the idealized "American fantasy" that emphasized idolized consumer culture.

References:

https://www.artsy.net/collection/pop-art

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/xdc974a79:pop-art/xdc974a79:pop-art-a-beginners-guide/a/pop-art

https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/pop-art/m0q4mn?categoryId=art-movement

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Ben-Day dots are the most defining and recognizable trait of pop art. This is a fairly simple method to adapt and was invented by Benjamin Henry Day Jr in the late 19th century.

The method is made up of small colored dots that are usually cyan, yellow, black, or magenta. They are used to shape and create shading and colors within the images. They do not take up the entire image but are used to place emphasis or create definition. These dots are the same size and are equally distributed around the image.

They may look machine-made (and later that became the more popular method of production) but are instead painstakingly painted by hand. Often an aluminum mesh was used to push oil paint through the holes. Other methods were adapted to make the process faster, but most stuck to the handpainted method.

Here is short a YouTube video showing and explaining what Ben-Day Dots are

https://youtu.be/-srlQ6fKEPM

References:

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/xdc974a79:pop-art/xdc974a79:pop-art-a-beginners-guide/a/pop-art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Day_process

https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/ben-day-dots

https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-roy-lichtenstein/articles/from-dot-painting-to-typography-the-techniques-of-roy-lichtenstein#:~:text=Lichtenstein's%20paintings%20may%20look%20machine,the%20holes%20using%20a%20toothbrush

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Roy Lichtenstein, an American artist from 1923-1997 was extremely influential, especially in the comic world. He was known for his use of the Ben-Day dot method and was a leading figure in the pop art movement.

Some of his most famous works are Whaam!, Drowning Girl, and Masterpiece which have all sold for over a hundred million each. He first started developing pop art techniques when he was teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He also went on to teach at other colleges such as Ohio State University, the State University of New York at Owego, and the University of California.

He found inspiration from the surrounding culture and mass-reproduced many images. He borrowed images from popular comic books and advertisements and added his own spin to them to fit the pop art style. At times he would copy the source image by hand and then trace the design onto the canvas with the help of a projector. His use of Ben-Day dots was a signature element of his style.

References:

https://artattack911.com/roy-lichtenstein-pop-art-great-first-friday-art-classes-art-studio/

https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/pop-art-artists

https://www.moma.org/artists/3542

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Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks - Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen 1969 located in New Haven, Connecticut 

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Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish-American scultpure who is best known for his large-scale replicas of everyday objects such as cake slices, bowling pins, clothespins, and more. He lived from 1829-2022 and a lot of his pieces are displayed in public around the country such as Dropped Cone 2001 which is a melting ice cream cone placed atop of shopping mall in Germany, Flying Pins 2000 sculptures 10 meters high of a bowling ball and pins in the Netherlands, and Cupid's Span 2002 located in San Francisco as a reference to Cupid and his bow and arrow.

His pieces were not simply blown-up versions of everyday objects, but often had a deep meaning or coded message hidden within. For example, Cupid's Span sculpture's placement of the arrow being buried into the ground spoke about the need to bury weapons and end violence that was rising at the time.

He is also known for his studio, "The Store" where plaster goods and small sculptures were displayed. As time went on, his sculptures grew in size and moved locations to streets, parks, and on buildings.

Fun fact:

Most of Oldenburg's works were made in collaboration with his wife, Coosje Van Bruggen

References:

https://fineartshippers.com/large-art-sculptures-by-claes-oldenburg/

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/xdc974a79:pop-art/xdc974a79:pop-art-a-beginners-guide/a/pop-art

https://www.moma.org/artists/4397#works

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Just What is it That Makes Today's Home so Different, so Appealing - Richard Hamilton 1956 collage

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Richard Hamilton was an English artist who lived from 1922-2011. He is most known for his collage, "Just What is it That Makes Today's Home so Different, so Appealing" made in 1956. This piece is considered to be among the earliest works of pop art that helped develop the movement. He is even credited with coining the term "pop art".

Hamilton valued exploring the relationships between product design, popular culture, and fine art. He did a lot of collage work but also created a lot of portraits, dabbled in sculpting, and even used physical objects to create shadow art.

Some of his other more recognizable works are his numerous renditions of the Guggenheim Museum in both portraits and sculptures, his 1955 exhibition Man, Machine, and Motion, and his piece My Marilyn 1965 which depicted several images of Marilyn Monroe where she was crossed out.

References:

https://www.moma.org/artists/2481

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/xdc974a79:pop-art/xdc974a79:pop-art-a-beginners-guide/a/pop-art

https://www.artsy.net/artist/richard-hamilton

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32 Campbell's Soup Cans - Andy Warhol 1962

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Andy Warhol is one of the more widely known and credited pop art artists. He created some of the 20th century's most iconic images and was obsessed with celebrities and brand names. He lived from 1928-1987. He hand-painted each canvas so meticulously that it looked mechanically produced. Later on, he embraced the use of silkscreen printing, later having his employees do it leading to his own studio called The Factory and an explosion in the use of print.

"The pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize is a split second - comics, picnic tables, men's trousers, celebrities, shower curtains, refrigerators, coke bottles - all the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried so hard not to notice at all." - Andy Warhol

Some of his most well-known pieces of art was his Gold Marilyn Monroe that was painted months after her suicide to reflect our obsession with celebrities in worshiping them as idols. His Silver Car Crash piece was another monumental one that showed 16 images of the same car crash. He is quoted saying, "The more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away." The more you are exposed to something, the more desensitized you are to it.

Fun fact:

The Factory was a popular meeting place for drag queens, playwrights, Hollywood celebrities, rich patrons, distinguished intellectuals, and even Bohemian street people.

References:

https://www.artsy.net/collection/pop-art

https://www.artsy.net/artist/andy-warhol

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/xdc974a79:pop-art/xdc974a79:pop-art-a-beginners-guide/a/pop-art

https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/andy-warhol/m0kc6