I’ve decided to look at the rise of pop art during the 50’s and most notably the 60’s. It started to gain traction during the 60’s throughout Britain and the United states. Artists that were active in this particular movement were drawing inspiration from there surroundings, our consumerist culture, so by taking imagery from mass culture they appropriated logos and imagery into there own work.

By focusing on mass produced works, Andy Warhol’s work would directly reflect the current state of mass communication in today’s society.

Young artists felt that what they were taught at art school and what they saw in museums did not have anything to do with their lives or the things they saw around them every day. Instead they turned to sources such as Hollywood movies, advertising, product packaging, pop music and comic books for their imagery.

It is therefore evident that Pop Art rose to power through the innovative technologies of that time, those that allowed us to reproduce on a wider scale. It should be noted that a major key player that gave rise to such a movement was Dada. Dada wasn’t exactly an artistic style, it was a nihilistic movement that rejected the current state of affairs, those young artists that were involved were anti-war due to the concerns with rising political tensions across seas at that time. Dada was breaching on surrealism, they rejected logic, capitalist society and in direct reaction to WW1, they pushed with irrationality which quite obviously contrasts capitalistic agendas.

Interestingly, we can see a positive correlation between the views of dadaist’s and those within Marxisms. The idea that capitalism is nothing but a greedy machine that pushes and pulls us to whatever ends, shows how they both would much rather accept a new state of economic conditions. It is clear in Marxism that the rich really do get richer by having private ownership

In Karl Marx’s view, the capitalists would eventually accumulate more and more capital impoverishing the working class, creating the social conditions for a revolution that would overthrow the institutions of capitalism.

Encyclopedia Britannica. 2017. Pop art | Characteristics, Facts, & Artists | Britannica.com. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/Pop-art. [Accessed 06 December 2017].

Tate. 2017. Pop art – Art Term | Tate. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art. [Accessed 06 December 2017].

Anti-capitalism – Wikipedia. 2017. Anti-capitalism – Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-capitalism. [Accessed 06 December 2017].