How Do Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art Differ From Each Other?
'The two faces of this 'Modernism' could literally not recognise each other, until a very late phase. On the one hand what was seen as energetic minority art of a fourth dimension of reduction and dislocation; on the other the routines of a technologized 'mass' civilisation'
American Abstraction and Pop Art are today described as 'some of the all-time adverts for democracy always created ''. Despite this, the imagery, concepts, and ideology of both movements are conflicting and sometimes fifty-fifty paradoxical to one another. Abstract Expressionism inspired past Surrealism and Automatism included 2 sub-groups: the activity painters and colour field painters. 'Its evolution was prepared for by the invention of photography, to which pictorial representation was essentially bequeathed'. Although critics, historians and the general public have long debated possible concepts for this abstract imagery, the move was universally seen equally spiritual and discrete from reality. By dissimilarity Pop Fine art focused on reality and the banalities of American club and pop culture using flat and oftentimes emotionally detached methods.
The intention of this essay is to explore the significant differences betwixt revolutionary American movements Pop Fine art and Modernist Abstraction; because imagery, principles, class and content. 1 will focus on examples from the 1950s, but also use later examples to illustrate progression. Before exploring these disparities in any more depth it is important to as well consider the similarities, and the background in which both movements flourished. In its founding years America was inspired by the mature established Advanced of Europe; deciding afterwards the Armoury Evidence in 1913 to create a movement that was purely American. American Regionalism and Realism were the first reactions, interim as a ground for Abstruse Expressionism and Pop Art to stand on through the 40s and 50s. During this time America was rebuilding after the Bully Depression and World Wars, it was a fourth dimension of 'Backer pride', equally America prospered and expanded. Canned food became commonplace, its image embedded in the American mind; the consumerist culture projected through the possibility of television receiver. Simultaneously, the Cold State of war left Americans paranoid and unsure of the future, the threat of atomic warfare leading to McCarthyism.
While Geometric Abstraction was explored by Kazimir Malevich and later explored past Josef Albers in the Usa, i will primarily explore Abstract Expressionism in comparison to Pop Art equally the evidence one has collected suggests the movement to be more than individualistic to America. The first significant difference 1 will be describing is one based on the art critic Clement Greenberg's theory of Modernism. Abstract Expressionism was first rejected by patriarchal American society;
'This is not art- it's a joke in bad taste '– Headline in Reynold'due south News in reaction to a Jackson Pollock show in New York 1959.
Jackson Pollock, (Number 1) Lavander Mist, 1950, oil on canvas
Jackson Pollock, Yellow Islands, 1952, oil on canvas
Greenberg'south writings defined the movement equally a continuation of the loftier art tradition; somewhen changing the consensus. He believed that Abstraction was equally a office of the Avant-garde as traditional painting movements, and that fine art was following a path towards simplification. 'My experience…tells me however that the best art of our mean solar day tends, increasingly, to be abstract .'
In his essay Avant-garde and Kitsch (1939), Greenberg refers to an 'idealist civilisation' which '…consists of the work from the authentic Modernist Avant-garde '. While Greenberg discusses the term Kitsch on a scholarly level, he regards abstraction as a motion of gustation, and non-related figurative movements but as pastiche or second rate. Kitsch in Greenberg's eyes was a result of the separation of class and culture, stating 'purists who defend abstract fine art as the merely defense confronting kitsch and the decline in civilization, are the ones who value art more annihilation else '.
Paul Cezanne, Gardanne, 1885-86, oil on canvas
Paul Cezanne, Even so Life with Apples, 1890-94, oil on sheet
Greenberg's continuation theory linked the paintings of nineteenthursday century artist Paul Cezanne to Abstract Expressionist works, praising his innovative employ of flatness, spatial class and the use of the canvas in its entirety. He afterward wrote of Mail service Painterly Abstraction (a further evolution of his 'purist' theory), but dismissed Pop-Art as a non-Avant-garde motility. Whereas Abstruse Expressionism rejected objectification, and escaped from consumerist culture, Pop-Art celebrated the very same civilization and returned to figurative imagery. 'From this perspective, the render to a business organisation with the medium of painting equally a self-sufficient activeness- containing its own justification-became impossible .' The beingness of Popular-Art contradicted Greenberg'south theories in using representational imagery; this contradiction was furthered through its influences taken straight from contextual sources. 'In the 1960s fine art appeared to rid itself in an offensive estate of everything that up until then could take been regarded as function of its concept. Dazzler, exclusiveness, individuality, significance, artistry, complexity, depth, originality, were no longer mandatory categories'.
The Thought of Kitsch that seemingly offended many artists and critics was a new concept in which art became humorous and witty; it commented on American life while reacting to the incomprehensibility of Abstract Expressionism. Despite the undeniable shock the emergence of Pop-Fine art caused, it was easier for Americans to relate to on a purely visual level. Abstract expressionists created feeling through their pigment, while popular-artists almost duplicated a commercial image, finding not the technique important but the concept behind it. 'Instead of looking like a billboard, Pop Art seems to be the actual affair'. This outlines some other major difference betwixt both movements- that being the role of the artist.
Artist roles take been in constant transition since the Renaissance, abstract expressionists appealed to the detail notion of the creative person being romantic, artistic, and individualistic. This perception had been previously explored every bit the need to portray the earth in a naturalistic way diminished through the late 19th and xxth century. Inside the European tradition abstracting forms became a distinct part of an artist's style, from Claude Monet'southward vibrant paint daubs to Pablo Picasso'due south ambiguous cubist creations. Impressionism and Cubism through abstraction created calorie-free and multiple perspectives, while forms of Expressionism mirrored human emotions and acted as a communicative outlet. Abstract Expressionism played on this, taking self-expression to new spiritual levels.
Pollock announced 'Nosotros've got machines to represent objects, I want to stand for what's inside a person….because the paint has a life of its own, I accept to allow it live' while in dissimilarity Andy Warhol claimed 'the reason I'm painting this style is that I desire to be a machine'. As Pollock stayed true to individualistic ethics, Warhol created a new part, simultaneously mimicking and celebrating mass civilisation and superficiality. He claimed that Pop-Art was almost 'liking things' that this fabricated him a 'car' as society as a whole liked the same things over and over over again. As the former used his whole torso to create his concrete drip paintings, the latter used a camera and silk screen to mass produce his works similar cans of soup. This comparison is a case of paint equally expression against pigment as a tool and nothing more. The sheer scale of abstract-expressionist works lent itself to the religious tradition of the alter-slice.
The withdrawal from everyday American imagery, replaced by big areas of colour or gestural marks in Abstruse Expressionism was perhaps what made it a more 'spiritual' experience. At the tiptop of his fame 'the experience of seeing his pictures reproduced…aslope adverts for instant frozen dinners and ford's latest motor cars made Pollock experience greatly uneasy'; he felt through fame and fortune he was selling his soul. Similarly in 1959 Mark Rothko 'repudiated his agreement to provide 600 foursquare feet of paintings for the virtually sectional room in the new 4 Seasons eating house at the Seagram Building in New York'. Although this was a very prestigious commission, it seemed to contradict the values of Rothko's work. He asked himself 'do I really want my work to be the amusement of those who pay $50 a plate?' Rothko's site specific paintings in his very own secular chapel were perhaps a more plumbing fixtures amalgamation of his beliefs. He described how onlookers wept in front of his paintings equally 'the same religious experience I had when I painted them .' Both artists followed a moral etiquette, rejecting the shallow, spiritually absent qualities of 1950's America; 'they wanted to rise higher up the capitalist consumerist culture'.
The Rothko Chapel, Houston, USA
'Pop is not burdened with that self-consciousness of Abstract Expressionism' – Robert Indiana
In this quote Indiana is mocking the item sense of morality felt past the abstruse-expressionists. As Abstruse Expressionism grew and flourished before Popular-Art, its individualistic tendencies had become tired for many artists. Ironically attempting to be unique seemed generic; depicting everyday civilization was more revolutionary, outrageous, and highly-seasoned to emerging pop-artists. Roy Lichtenstein'due south 'Castor Stroke' created in 1965 depicts paint with paint that looks more like plastic. The shapes of the castor-stroke requite a gestural feel, but this is over shadowed by the way the paint has been practical; it is de-contextualised and stylised, mimicking a comic strip. The reduction of this unique, gestural marking to a flat printed shape seems symbolic of the removal of painterly marks and expression in Pop-Art. While almost all visual imagery is expressive in some way, Popular-Fine art was impersonal in technique and expressive in concept. Tom Wesselmann stated 'I use DeKooning's brush knowing it'due south his brush' while James Rosenquist's claimed he only painted every bit he could not find collage material big enough, that each brush-stroke that occurred was collage in itself.
Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke, 1965, print on newspaper
Both movements in question every bit before described cannot exist discussed without the mention of social and political climates. Although Abstruse Expressionism was non immediately political in terms of content, the motion became political in the repulsion its pioneers felt towards the commemoration of superficiality (this could also take been an explanation for their move away from the object or figurative subject). This repulsion, or sense of freedom, inspired the American government to use Abstruse Expressionism every bit visual ammunition against Russian propaganda art during the Common cold War. While these motives were never backside the works of the abstruse-expressionists, assistance from the regime meant their projects were more often funded. 'Pollock was promoted as, in the words of Eva Cockcroft, every bit a weapon of the Common cold War' Pop-Art on the other paw was deliberately political, equally although it aspired to describe consumer culture, it could not avert the disquisitional questions raised.
For Tom Wesselmann, the traditional subjects of the nude and still life became symbols of superficiality. He painted Coca-Cola bottles, meat, and packaged cans that appeared to be direct mag cut-outs; aspects that were previously central to paintings were simplified most beyond recognition. His figures were represented by one flat colour for skin, and distorted in shape with body parts pasted in photo realistically; the smiling oral fissure seeming fifty-fifty more than superficial in its isolation. This focus on packaging and mass production over human identity related to Warhol's initial Coca-Cola paintings, both artists encouraged debate of what was truly important in American social club.
Tom Wesselmann, Withal Life Number 30, 1963, mixed media
Tom Wesselmann ,The Great American Nude 27, 1962, oil on sail
Tom Wesselmann, All the same Life Number twenty, 1962, mixed media Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola, 1960, oil on canvas
Warhol's expiry and disaster series played on the repetition of horrific or traumatising incidents beingness reported through television, radio and newsprint. 'When you see a gruesome picture show over and over again, it doesn't really take whatever affect
' His car crash and electric chair prints reflected the morbid curiosity of society, while his pictures of celebrities emulated obsession of celebrity civilisation; a culture in which compassion could never really truly exist. People had never met these celebrities, yet they thrived on gossip and cognition of their private lives, it was this aspect of Marilyn Monroe'south fame that perhaps tipped her over the edge. Warhol never separated himself from this glory crazed culture, and in creating 'The Manufacturing plant', he fabricated prints and films of anyone he felt worthy.
Image of Warhol's Factory
Andy Warhol, Electric Chair, 1965, silk-screen print
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, silk-screen impress
Marking Rothko, Reddish on Maroon, 1959, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko's suicide in 1970 made the world reconsider his piece of work; his cerise paintings seemed to become a representation of how he was feeling. At that place is one comparing one can therefore make between Rothko's red paintings and Warhol's 'Decease and Disaster' series, the theme of 'Death through Fine art'. Rothko'southward ruby-red paintings are openly sinister at first glance, although it is something one cannot escape through the mood emitting color. In Warhol'due south prints notwithstanding the colours are bright, synthetic, at a stretch manic, but almost mask the depicted themes. This point is possibly more than disturbing than Rothko'southward mood provoking paintings; the removal of emotion in Popular-Art perhaps emboldening the sinister undertones.
Afterward discussing significant differences 1 will now consider similarities between the two movements. Both Abstract Expressionism and Pop-Art lend themselves to the American dream. Grant Wood iconic image 'American Gothic' painted in 1930 shows the American dream in its early stages. A human being and his daughter take their gender roles, the feminine part being one of domesticity, the masculine beingness one of hard labour. These 2 figures represent family values, hard work, and the benefits of their work. Dressed in xixth century costume, they embody what travellers to America imagined they would discover freedom, independence and the opportunity to 'live off the fat of the land '. There was no shame in celebrating financial gain; it was this philosophy perhaps that created America's later fascination with mass production. The loss of spirituality in this instance was what Abstract Expressionism was relating to. Abstraction embodied the American dream in freedom of expression, while Pop-Fine art possibly embodied it in a more corrupted manner; recording the success of the smash during the 50s.
Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930, oil on sheet
While the concepts backside Abstruse Expressionism and Pop-Fine art differ dramatically, aesthetically artists Robert Rauschenburg and Jasper Johns bridge the two movements together. Rauchenurg's 'Untitled (Ashville Citizen)' of 1952 appeals about entirely to abstraction, the only figurative aspect being the involvement of newspaper nether the black surface. This work would not look out of identify beside post-painterly pieces created a decade later, because this evidence Rauschenberg appears both popular-creative person and abstractionist. His more famous works involving a melange of materials and mixed media techniques included photographs, screen-printing, just also a range of expressive mark making combining the ii movements.
Robert Rauschenberg, Ashville Citizen, 1952, oil and newspaper on sheet
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled, 1954, oil and mixed media on canvas
Jasper Johns used the American flag as an keepsake to experiment with painterly techniques. Rather than the motif or visual icon of the flag in the air current, Johns presented 'the flag as a flat immobile two-dimensional object'. His flag paintings promoted the thought of entirely American art practice, simultaneously involving expressive use of materials.
Jasper Johns, Flag, Encaustic, oil and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, 1954-55
This sometimes ambiguous boundary between both movements was perhaps because in spite of their manifesto, many pop-artists grew upwardly inspired past Abstruse Expressionism. Andy Warhol's Coca-Cola series of 1960 used a mix of gestural brushstrokes and flat application; 'the starting time two contained painterly drips, smudges, and ambitious brushwork' this was earlier he perfected his aesthetically bogus style of painting and printing. Warhol later admitted that he liked Abstract Expressionism only claimed 'I wasn't certain if yous could completely remove all the hand gestures from art and become not-committal, anonymous'.
Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola, 1960, oil on sheet
The intention of this essay was to explore the significant differences between revolutionary American movements Pop Art and Modernist Brainchild; considering imagery, principles, form and content. One considered Greenberg'southward theory of Modernism and Kitsch, the dissimilarity of spirituality and superficiality, technique and concept, political aspects, and finally similarities of both movements. Although both movements differed on many levels, they both originated through the same social climate of the mid-20th century. In this sense the 'art of a time of reduction and dislocation' and the art of 'technologized 'mass' civilization' were non entirely contrary. Similarities occurred aesthetically, and also in the fact that both movements were political and embodied the American dream.
Despite being repudiated in its beginning, Pop Art today is considered an Avant-guard movement; its ground seen as an influence to the self-critical nature of Post-modernism. With the contextual and historical distance i has from both movements at this present time, it is possible to see the movements less as completely opposite entities, and more than as a function of a complex and various artistic reaction to American society in this period.
Source: https://jwri.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/pop-art-and-abstract-expressionism/
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