Pop Art Movement In The 1950's And 1960s

Pop Art movement was marked by a fascination with popular culture reflecting the affluence in post-war (WWII) society in the 1950's and 1960's. It was most prominent in American art but was understood to have commenced in Britain. Pop Art coincided with the globalization of pop music and youth culture. It was brash, young, fun and hostile to the artistic establishment. The movement was led by activists, thinkers, and artists who sought to rethink and even overturn what was widely interpreted as a reaction against the rigid critical structure and lofty philosophies surrounding Abstract Expressionism, a stifling social order ruled by conformity in their eyes. Pop Art intended to employ images of popular culture in contrast to elitist culture
The Independent Group was part of the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, originating around the 1940s. Artists of the Independent Group first began to appropriate idealized imagery of the American lifestyle they found in popular magazines as part of their critique of British society. Critic Lawrence Alloway and artist Richard Hamilton (individuals in association to The Independent Group) are usually credited with coining the term Pop Art – Alloway recognized in his article "The Arts and Mass Media," Architectural Record (February 1958) and Hamilton for his famous collage from 1956, “Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?”, Made to announce the Independent Group’s 1956 exhibition "This Is Tomorrow," in
For instance, artists such as Gustave Courbet's, with his piece “Bonjour, Mr. Courbet” (1855) includes a pose taken from the inexpensive print series called Imagerie d’Épinal which featured moralizing scenes invented by Jean-Charles Pellerin. Every young man knew these pictures about street life, the military and legendary characters. Some wondered if the middle class got Courbet's drift because he knew he had invaded "high art" with a "low" art form.
Picasso also used the same strategy when he joked about individuals love affair with shopping by creating a woman out of a label and ad from the department Bon Marché Au Bon Marché (1914) below. It may not be considered the first Pop Art collage, but it certainly planted the seeds for the