Pop art uses images and materials from mass media and modern life for inspiration.
Pop art was an art movement, or style, that originated in Britain in the 1950s and spread to the United States in the 1960s. Pop artists focused on the influence of the mass media, advertising and consumer products in their work.Influential pop artists include Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney and Andy Warhol. These artists were all interested in the way that aspects of modern life such as movies, pop music and consumerism, intersected with art.
Life Comics
The pop artist Roy Lichtenstein became famous for paintings resembling comic book illustrations, but which focused on themes of modern life. Show your students some pictures of Lichtenstein's work and ask them to think about the way they resemble comics, such as in their use of color and dots, and how they are different. Ask students to draw a portrait of someone who looks as if they are thinking about something. Have them draw a thought bubble and write in the thought bubble what the person is thinking of.
Time Capsule
Andy Warhol is most famous for his portraits of famous people and consumer items, but his largest projects was a series of 612 time capsules containing items from his daily life. These consisted of cardboard boxes into which he placed things such as letters, newspapers, gifts, photographs and business records. The capsules are used today to learn more about Warhol's life and life in his era. Discuss the concept of time capsules with students, and that they can be used to take a snapshot of a person's life at a particular moment in time. Have students design their own time capsules, featuring everyday items from their lives. Discuss what the time capsules will show about the students, the lives and times.
Collage
The artist Richard Hamilton used magazine clippings to create interesting scenes and pictures of modern life. Show the students a picture of Hamilton's most famous piece "Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?" and discuss the way Hamilton gave new meanings to a familiar space (a room). Give students magazines, glue, scissors and paper and ask them to use clippings from the magazines to create a room that shows some elements of modern culture. Encourage them to think about rooms such as theaters, classrooms, kitchens and malls, and what part these places play in a student's life.
Pop Art Portraits
Show students pictures of Warhol's 100 Soup Cans and 25 Marilyn's. Point out how Warhol used repetition to draw attention to the ubiquity of certain images in the media. Students should draw a portrait of a person -- themselves or someone else -- in outline on a sheet of plain white paper using a black marker. Photocopy each portrait six times. Students should color each portrait using three or four colors. Each section of the portrait (hair, face, shoulders, background) should be colored a solid color. They should use a different combination of colors in each portrait. The pictures should then be cut out and glued in two rows of three onto a sheet of black paper.
