How Pop art challenged the principles of Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism reached its heyday in the early 1950s, celebrating introspection and personal freedom. This suited America’s political image, and the art world lauded Abstract Expressionism as definitive of its time and place – but just one decade later, the work of the Pop artists was reflecting a very different kind of modernity, based on American culture, which would also apply to the entire Western world. Representational rather than abstract, commercial rather than personal, Pop art contradicted the Abstract Expressionist views of what ‘high’ art was, what was considered worthy subject matter, and what modern America was all about. One of the most obvious differences between Abstract Expressionist art and Pop art was the chosen subject matter in each movement. As their label suggests, Abstract Expressionist artists painted in an abstract style to represent a subject that had no physical form: “basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on,” said Mark Rothko. ... ” Abstract Expressionist art often concerned the spiritual; Jackson Pollock’s famous painting technique has been compared to Native American sand art, which was made by trickling thin lines of coloured sand onto a horizontal surface. While the inward-looking Abstract Expressionists drew inspiration from themselves, Pop artists looked outward and drew inspiration from their surroundings – and they were surrounded with mass produced objects and commercial images. “The surprising thing,” said Pop artist Richard Hamilton, “is that it took until the mid-fifties for artists to realise that the visual world had been altered by the mass media and changed dramatically enough to make it worth looking at in terms of painting.” Unlike Abstract Expressionism, Pop art was purely representational, and depicted images from mass media, consumer culture, politics and erotica – subjects that were far from spiritual. Franz Kozloff in his essay American Painting During The Cold War wrote, “Pop symptomized … an age noted for visual diarrhea.” Pop artists made commentaries on issues such as the use of sex in advertising, such as in K.