Lesson 3, Turning Everyday Life into Art
T : Welcome to our art class. Today, I'm going to tell you about one type of modern art. Let me start with two photographs. One is a photograph of rows of soup cans in a supermarket. The other is a photo of Marilyn Monroe. Can you find anything in common between the two pictures?
S1: Did Marilyn Monroe appear as a model in a soup commercial?
T : That's a good guess, but I'm afraid the answer is no.
S2: Well, soup cans can be found in supermarkets by the hundreds, but there's only one Marilyn Monroe. The two things are total opposites.
T : Indeed. But do you recognize these pictures with soup cans and Marilyn Monroe as subject matter?
S3: Yes. Both of them are works by an American artist. I forget his name .
T : Very good! The artist's name is "'Andy Warhol. Warhol's works are classic examples of what is now generally known as pop art.
S1: To be honest, I don't see how you can call those pictures art.
T : Well, let's talk a little about pop art. Pop art developed in the 1960s as a reaction against abstract art, which was difficult to understand. Abstract art had no relationship to everyday life. Abstract paintings simply looked like a mix of shapes, patterns, and colors. Ordinary people living their everyday lives, however, were not interested in it. They thought it was meaningless.
After World War Ⅱ, the world turned into a mass consumer society. There were ads for more new products than ever before. Ordinary people were satisfied with being consumers of popular culture. Some artists noticed this trend and decided to use common objects in their art, such as movie stars, soft drinks, and household items, as symbols of modern society. People understood what they saw and just enjoyed it. it wasn't the sort of art that only intellectuals could enjoy but was accessible to everybody.
S3: So this new kind of art became popular.
T: That's right. That's why it's called pop art, which is short for "popular art." Pop art is one of the major art movements of the 20th century. Here are its main characteristics. First of all, it often borrows its subject matter from advertising, photography, comic strips, or other mass media sources. Second, pop art has its own special style. It uses very simple images, exaggerated size, and bright colors to catch the viewer's attention. Last, pop artists like Warhol also rejected standard painting methods. Instead, they printed their works using mechanical techniques.
S1: Why did they do that?
T: It's because they wanted to emphasize mass production in modern culture. You'll understand if you look at more works. As you can see, Warhol painted people, places, and things that Americans see every day. But his pictures were not exact copies. He duplicated certain photographs, but added his own colors and lines to make them different from the original. His soup can is close enough to reality to make the viewer ask whether it is art or an ordinary soup can. Nevertheless, at the same time it is clear that it is a re-creationㅡnot the real thing. And he abandoned painting by hand and adopted a silkscreen technique to print his works and often produced a series of works all depicting the same thing. Look at this picture by Roy Lichtenstein, called Drowning Girl. What does it look like?
S2: I think it looks like a comic strip.
T: Correct. The source of this painting is a comic book. Lichtenstein used a comic－strip style in his paintings and manipulated the illustrations to create special aesthetic effects. He blew up the original images to a huge size, giving a startling effect.
S3: I think I've seen a sculpture of a hamburger as an example of pop art before. Am I remembering correctly?
T: Absolutely right. It was a work by Claes Oldenburg. He depicted popular food products such as ice cream and hamburgers. He explored the humorous aspects of common objects by distorting them in size, shape, and material.
S3: Actually, it looked quite tasty. But I'd rather eat a hamburger than look at one as art.
T: I don't blame you. There is no denying that his works look delicious. Claes Oldenburg thought that a hamburger was a beautiful thing and celebrated it in his artwork.
S1: Now pop art looks fun and different. It wasn't until hearing your explanation today that I began to understand it. I'm able to look at it in a new way.
T: Warhol once said, "Pop art is about liking things." A friend of his explained the comment as follows: "The reason Andy painted soup cans is that he liked soup." It is as simple as that. So why not? You can start a pop art project right away by looking at familiar objects around you with a fresh eye. Look into your kitchen cabinets. Get a photograph of your favorite movie star. But don't simply copy what you see. Be creative in your reaction to images that you are used to. Well, that's about all I have to say. Thanks for participating.
Ss: Thank you!
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