Pop Art - 9780500282403

Pop art brilliantly blended the banal and the mythic, creating the most genuinely popular movement in modern art. Marco Livingstone's comprehensive history charts the international development of Pop from its origins in the 1950s and 1960s, and illustrates the work of more than 130 artists, much of which was previously unpublished. The serious and provocative intent of Pop artists is no longer in doubt, and it is now clear that Pop exerted a strong influence on subsequent developments in art. Pop's open attitude to subject matter, style, and technique eliminated dichotomies between high and low art, representation and abstraction, and between the small world of art experts and a wide enthusiastic public. Embracing consumer culture in its attention to brand-name products, comics, and movie stars, artists such as Johns, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Rosenquist, Ruscha, and Warhol expanded the range of imagery and technique. The many varieties of Pop inspired a younger generation of artists, including Haring, Koons, Opie, and Salle, who produced work that was deeply indebted to Pop's attitudes and form. 366 illustrations, 300 in color.