Can you celebrate consumer culture at the same time that you critique it? Pop artists thought so.
c. 1956–1980 C.E.
Beginner's guide
The term “Pop Art” first emerged in Great Britain after World War II, but the approach can be traced back even further.
videos + essays
We're adding new content all the time!
Kay WalkingStick, Peonies
Planes of pink, purple, and green give form to a woman's silhouette, while a bouquet of peonies suggests the blossoming of feminist art.
Kay WalkingStick, Havasu Revisited
WalkingStick tells a story of Indigenous sacredness in her diptych of the rocky landscape of Havasu.
Pop Art
Pop seems to glorify popular culture, but a second look reveals a critique of post-war marketing and consumerism.
Harry Fonseca, Two Coyotes with Flags
Cartoonish coyotes play on Fonseca's overlapping identities as queer, American, and Indigenous.
Betye Saar, Liberation of Aunt Jemima
Beyte Saar boldly attempts to rescue the Mammy character from her demeaning, servile role in Jim Crow fantasy in this powerful assemblage
Richard Hamilton, Just What is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?
While Hamilton's Just What is It… is considered to be among the most foundational works of Pop Art, this small collage was initially not created as a work of art.
![Andy Warhol, <em>Coca-Cola [3]</em>](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Andy-Warhol-Coca-Cola-thumb-570x350.jpg)
The Case for Andy Warhol
By laying bare the relationship between commerce and art, Warhol nullified the idea of being a sell out.
James Rosenquist, F-111
This war machine seemed obsolete before it was finished; Rosenquist explains why he painted it with SpaghettiOs.
Why is this art? Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans
By putting this in the museum, we see this as art. But what if it weren’t there?
Roy Lichtenstein, Rouen Cathedral Set V
How do you make a nineteenth-century masterpiece ask twentieth-century questions?
