Whaat is Whaam?

Whaam! is the famous painting depicted above, but it is also the name of this blog, which covers all things Pop Art. Pop Art an artistic movement that emerged in the 1950s in England, which reached its maturity in the 1960s in the USA.

This movement emerged in the mid-twentieth century, in which artists incorporated common objects - comic books, cans of soup, newspapers and more - into their works. Pop Art sought to solidify the idea that art can be based on any source, and there is no hierarchy of culture to hinder that. It was established in two independent directions, first in London and then in the United States.

Pop Art in the UK: The Independent Group (IG), founded in London in 1952, is recognized as the precursor to the movement. The Independent Group analyzed, discussed, designed, built and assembled a rich material of highly significant works that explore contemporary culture. Using a variety of sources, including the pages of science fiction magazines, Jackson Pollock paintings, Hollywood films, the streets of London and modernist architecture, Grupo Independente created a radical approach to looking at and working with visual culture. The central themes of Britain's Pop Art were a reflection on consumption, the risks of power politics and nuclear policy, or the questioning of gender roles, themes that continue to concern us.

Pop Art in the US: A boom in the post-World War II economy led to higher wages and more leisure time, and mass production led to the creation of objects such as televisions, dishwashers and cars on an unprecedented scale. With the appearance of new technologies in print production, and the rise of the advertising industry, consumer goods were sold with the promise of satisfying their owners. With newfound wealth, mobility and free time, many Americans moved to the suburbs and television became the dominant media of the 1950s. Surrounded by the products of consumer culture, American Pop Art artists were inspired by what they saw and experienced living within that culture.

Pop Art is said to be the turning point from modernity to postmodernity in Western culture. One of the biggest differences between British and American pop art was that the British concentrated on a lighter tone and often tended to incorporate humor. American pop art, by contrast, was a product of incessant marketing that Americans tended to be subjected to. When talking about Pop Art, the first name that comes to mind is Andy Warhol! Warhol's influence was enormous, but there were many other American pop artists who led the way in Pop Art. It is at that moment that in addition to Warhol, pop artists names like Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist e Tom Wesselmann as the main representatives of Pop Art. Without a defined style, the works of these artists are fine-tuned for their simplified design, saturated colors, the use of common objects and everyday life. These artists make use of reproduction techniques that simulate mechanized work such as three-dimensional collages, serigraphy techniques to represent the impersonality of objects, thus producing mass art for consumption.