Essay On Pop Art And Culture

Pop art: The exchange between consumerism and culture.

Madison Appelmam
Senior Division Historical Paper
Paper Length: (word count)

A growing economy, new technology, and a changing way of life. Something different was happening to the society, like nothing we've ever seen before. All of which was documented by artists that were creating a new style of art, pop art. The rise of pop art marked the start of a new era for the United States. It was the visual representation of the exchange between consumerism and culture. The pop art movement began mid 1950s and 1960s, it first arose in Britain and later began in the United States. This modern style of art was based on popular culture, it frequently included imagery of advertisements and the news. Artist would use a very straightforward manner to depict everyday items and mass media. They always used

Income had spread around more evenly and the market received many new consumers, a culture of consumerism was created. Culture and consumerism were a constant exchange, each bouncing off of one another. A part of the culture was conspicuous consumption, people spending their money on items that would showcase their wealth and social class. Being a consumer also exposed you to the culture, buying a television meant seeing the pop culture that had taken over the mass media. Pop artists depicted the world around them. It is for this reason that pop art included everyday items and news. The artists were simply displaying life in their era, but ended up creating a visual representation of the exchange between consumerism and culture that had take over society. Artwork displayed items that consumers frequently purchased in their culture, advertisements like ones seen on televisions, media stars, or really anything that was drawn from mass media and popular culture. Famous artwork from the pop art