The mechanized future of early pop art had become the present, and the liberation from the old values it promised had come to be seen as what it was: an emptying-out process of jumped-up consumer stimulation that left you with very little in the way of tangible values. If pop started out as a way of "liking things," as Andy said, probably quite sincerely, its legacy in the '70s and '80s was more complicated: you can like things all you want, but they will not like you back. In fact, when you're not looking, they will rob you. It's now more or less agreed that the great liberation that was supposed to flow from the new industrial society never actually took place, and even if it did, it ushered in another set of problems. The great leveling of social codes that followed the breakdown of the 1950s order only led to more anxiety. By the '70s, pop art started to look like an embrace of this new consumer-driven social order; it felt a touch corrupt and compromised, and integrated a little too easily into the middle-high strata of public taste.
The above passage is from David Salle's How to See: Looking, Talking, and Thinking about Art. Yes, bless him, Salle is a fellow adherent of the Oxford comma. Specifically, it's from Salle's overview on Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein became famous in the '60s for his update of the pointillist method. He would take comic book panels, subtly alter their imagery and layout, enlarge them in the form of paintings, which also included enlarging the Ben-Day dots.
Lichtenstein eventually moved onto other subjects, derived from high art rather than pop ephemera. It was a necessary change. His old style had been (re)appropriated by the makers of ironic t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc. You could see it as the curse of the SubGenius. But while he changed subject matter, the dots stayed. One might look at them and wonder why he was doing it like that. Salle, a much sought-after painter in his own right, provides some explanation of why Lichtenstein was doing what he did the way he did it.
His insights extend a bit beyond the art world as well. The "emptying-out" he speaks of certainly reached a lot further, and has never ended. The past sixty years or so have seen a great deal of change on the social, economic, and political fronts. It's mostly been a discarding of the old where one waits in vain for the "in with the new" part. So how can you counteract that? It's an open question.
1 comment:
Is David Salle himself not a 'Pop' artist? I must admit the term escapes me - I went to his gallery website and his work sure looked 'Pop' to me. But I'm not the least bit of a sophisticate when it comes to how modern art movements are defined. However, he does sound to be a very good and well informed writer who displays a good sense of humor: 'you can like things all you want, but they will not like you back. In fact, when you're not looking, they will rob you.'
It's all a matter of personal taste, isn't it? The term Impressionism originated in a sarcastic review of a Claude Monet's painting 'Impression, Sunrise,' by a critic who disliked the painting. But Monet is among my favorite artists - as is Impressionism. So I like a number of Warhol's paintings where at the same time I've never forgotten he started out as a talented advertising artist - just a step away from the heart of pop culture. (His portraits are most cool).
Roy Lichtenstein on the other hand was very skilled and sensitive artist. I couldn't help but enjoy seeing his comic book art and popular illustration as his way of subverting commercial styles of the time. It's no wonder he became one of the most important figures in the Pop art movement. When people began parodying his subtle comic book paintings it was definitely time to move on. His later paintings are an equally valuable contribution to the culture. I really like his Times Square Mural.
Pop art, like pop music, is designed to be popular. It came after mass media became mass and is a commentary on it as well as a product of it. The economic systems we're surrounded by - where anything that can be commercialized and consumed is - Pop art is extremely easy to be sold to the mass audience - low price of entry and mass appeal.
McLuhan’s Media is the Message is a good reference book about this.
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