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.
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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.
![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?
Claes Oldenburg, Floor Cake
Oldenburg’s wonderfully floppy, sloppy cake is filthy, humorous, and not at all edible.
Andy Warhol, Gold Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn’s floating head, garishly colored, functions as the Virgin Mary in a Byzantine icon.
Claes Oldenburg, Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks
This sculpture, installed on the Yale campus during Vietnam War protests, was never meant to be permanent.
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych
Warhol used a quasi-mechanical process of silkscreen to reproduce Marilyn Monroe’s familiar face again and again.
Pop Art
Pop seems to glorify popular culture, but a second look reveals a critique of post-war marketing and consumerism.
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