POP ARTISTS, PAINTERS, PRINTMAKERS
Richard Hamilton
-Born February 24th,1922, is an English painter and collage artist
-His 1956 collage titled Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by critics and historians to be one of the early works of Pop Art
-Richard Hamilton grew up in the Pimlico area of London
-Having left school with no formal qualifications Hamilton got work as an apprentice working at an electrical components firm
-Hebegan to do painting at evening classes at St Martin's School of Art which eventually led to his entry into the Royal Academy Schools
-After two years at the Slade School of Art, University College, London, Hamilton began exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) where he also produced posters and leaflets
Hamilton's 1956 collage titled Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?
1950s and 1960s
-Hamilton's early work was much influenced by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's 1913 text On Growth and Form
-In 1952, at the first Independent Group meeting, held at the ICA, Hamilton was introduced to Eduardo Paolozzi's seminal presentation of collages produced in the late 1940s and early 1950s that are now considered to be the first standard bearers of Pop Art
-Also in 1952, he was introduced to the Green Box notes of Marcel Duchamp through Roland Penrose, whom Hamilton had met at the ICA
-At the ICAHamilton was responsible for the design and installation of a number of exhibitions including one on James Joyce and The Wonder and the Horror of the Human Head that was curated by Penrose
-It was also through Penrose that Hamilton met Victor Pasmore who gave him a teaching post based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne which lasted until 1966
-Among the students Hamilton tutored at Newcastle in this period were Rita Donagh, Mark Lancaster, Tim Head, Roxy Music founder Bryan Ferry and Ferry's visual collaborator Nicholas De Ville. Hamilton's influence can be found in the visual styling and approach of Roxy Musi
-From the mid-1960s, Hamilton was represented by Robert Fraser and even produced a series of prints Swingeing London based on Fraser's arrest, along with Mick Jagger, for possession of drugs. This association with the 1960s Pop Music scene continued as Hamilton became friends with Paul McCartney resulting in him producing the cover design and poster collage for the Beatles' White Album
Jasper Johns
-Detail of Flag (1954-55). Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
-This image illustrates Johns' early technique of painting with thick, dripping encaustic over a collage made from found materials such as newspaper.
-This rough method of construction is rarely visible in photographic reproductions of his work.
-Jasper Johns, Map, 1961. Museum of Modern ArtNew York City. Flags, maps, targets, stenciled words and numbers were themes used by Johns in the 1960s
-Jasper Johns, Jr. (born May 15, 1930) is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking
-Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed
-He then spent a year living with his mother in Columbia, South Carolina and thereafter he spent several years living with his aunt Gladys in Lake Murray, South Carolina, twenty-two miles from Columbia
-He completed high school in Sumter, South Carolina, where he once again lived with his mother
-Recounting this period in his life, he says, "In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in." He began drawing when he was three and has continued doing art ever since
-Johns studied at the University of South Carolina from 1947 to 1948, a total of three semesters
-He then moved to New York City and studied briefly at the Parsons School of Design in 1949
-In 1952 and 1953 he was stationed in Sendai, Japan during the Korean War
-In 1958, gallery owner Leo Castelli discovered Johns while visiting Rauschenberg's studio
-Castelli gave him his first solo show. It was here that Alfred Barr, the founding director of New York's Museum of Modern Art, purchased four works from his exhibition
-In 1963, Johns and Cage founded Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, now known as Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York City
-He is best known for his painting Flag (1954–55), which he painted after having a dream of the American flag
-His subject matter often includes images and objects from popular culture
-Many compilations on pop art include Jasper Johns as a pop artist because of his artistic use of classical iconography
Andy Warhol
-Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an Americanpainter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art
-After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and member of highly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywoodcelebrities and wealthy patrons
-Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame." In his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Andy Warhol Museum exists in memory of his life and artwork
-The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is $100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market." $100 million is a benchmark price that only Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-August Renoir, Gustav Klimt and Willem de Kooning have achieved
Commercial Art (1949–61)
-Warhol showed early artistic talent and studied commercial art at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
-In 1949, he moved to New York City and began a career in magazine illustration and advertising
-During the 1950s, he gained fame for his whimsical ink drawings of shoe advertisements. These were done in a loose, blotted-ink style, and figured in some of his earliest showings at the Bodley Gallery in New York
-With the concurrent rapid expansion of the record industry and the introduction of the vinyl record, Hi-Fi, and stereophonic recordings, RCA Records hired Warhol, along with another freelance artist, Sid Maurer, to design album covers and promotional materials
-It was during the 1960s that Warhol began to make paintings of iconic American products such as Campbell's Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles, as well as paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Troy Donahue, Muhammad Ali and Elizabeth Taylor
-He founded "The Factory," his studio during these years, and gathered around himself a wide range of artists, writers, musicians, and underground celebrities
-He began producing prints using the silkscreen method
-His work became popular and controversial
Campbell's Soup I (1968)
-By the beginning of the 1960s, Warhol had become a very successful commercial illustrator
-His detailed and elegant drawings for I. Miller shoes were particularly popular. They consisted mainly of "blotted ink" drawings a technique which he applied in much of his early art
-Although many artists of this period worked in commercial art, most did so discreetly. Warhol was so successful, however, that his profile as an illustrator seemed to undermine his efforts to be taken seriously as an artist
-Pop art was an experimental form that several artists were independently adopting; some of these pioneers, such as Roy Lichtenstein, would later become synonymous with the movement
-Warhol, who would become famous as the "Pope of Pop", turned to this new style, where popular subjects could be part of the artist's palette
-His early paintings show images taken from cartoons and advertisements, hand-painted with paint drips
-Warhol's first pop art paintings were displayed in April 1961, serving as the backdrop for New York Department Store Bronwit Teller's window display
-This was the same stage his Pop Art contemporaries Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and Robert Rauschenberg had also once graced
Jackson Pollock
-Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956), known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
-During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.
-Pollock died at the age of 44 in an drunken-driving accident, which also killed a young woman. In December 1956, he was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.
The Springs Period and The Unique Technique
-In October 1945 Pollock married American painter Lee Krasner, and in November they moved to what is now known as the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio, at 830 Springs Fireplace Road, in Springs on Long Island, NY.
-Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936 at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by a Mexican muralist.
-He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques on canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I."
-After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique. Therefore, Pollock turned to synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, which, at that time, was a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist’s paints, as "a natural growth out of a need.”
-He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able toachieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas.
-By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension, literally, by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.
-In the process of making paintings in this way, he moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush.
-He also moved away from the use of only the hand and wrist, since he used his whole body to paint. In 1956, Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style.
-"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.
-"I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint
-"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.
-I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.
-- Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956
The 1950s
-Pollock's most famous paintings were made during the "drip period" between 1947 and 1950. He rocketed to popular status following an August 8, 1949 four-page spread in Life magazine that asked, "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" At the peak of his fame, Pollock abruptly abandoned the drip style.
-Pollock's work after 1951 was darker in color, including a collection painted in black on unprimed canvases. This was followed by a return to color,and he reintroduced figurative elements. During this period Pollock had moved to a more commercial gallery and there was great demand from collectors for new paintings. In response to this pressure, along with personal frustration, his alcoholism deepened.
Pollock in Pop Culture & News
-In 1960, Ornette Coleman's album Free Jazz featured a Pollock painting as its cover artwork.
-In 1973, Blue Poles(Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952), was purchased by the Australian Whitlam Government for the National Gallery of Australia for US $2 million (AU $1.3 million at the time of payment). At the time, this was the highest price ever paid for a modern painting. In the conservative climate of the time, the purchase created a political and media scandal. The painting is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery, and is thought to be worth between $100 and $150 million, according to 2006 estimate.
- It was a centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art's 1998 retrospective in New York, the first time the painting had returned to America since its purchase.
-In November 2006, Pollock's No. 5, 1948 became the world's most expensive painting, when it was sold privately to an undisclosed buyer for the sum of $140,000,000. The previous owner was film and music-producer David Geffen. It is rumored that the current owner is a German businessman and art collector.
-Also in 2006 a documentary, Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? was made concerning Teri Horton, a truck driver who in 1992 bought an abstract painting for the price of five dollars at a thrift store in California. This work may be a lost Pollock painting. If so it would potentially be worth millions; its authenticity, however, remains debated.