Beginningin England in the mid-1950s and the United States in the early 1960s,Pop Art was one of the most revolutionary art movements of thetwentieth century. The term “Pop Art” was first used by Englishart critic Lawrence Alloway in the late 1950s. During those years agroup of artists, rather than despising popular culture, gladlyembraced both its imagery and its methods, using photographs,advertisements, posters, cartoons and everyday objects to form thebasis of their art.

AndyWarhol, though not the first artist to mine advertising for art, hasremained the best-known practitioner of Pop Art. He took photographsfrom newspapers and silkscreened them onto canvases in shockingcolors, creating several “mass-produced” images from photographsof 20th century icons such as Marilyn Monroe, ElvisPresley and Jackie Kennedy. The media called him the Prince of Pop.Other artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Hamilton,created collages(拼貼畫)out of pre-existing print images—celebrities, advertising,newspapers, television and the movies. These images took on an ironicmeaning when put together into collages. Sculptor Claes Oldenburgsought to deprive everyday objects of their function, creating softtoilets and oversized hot water bottles that would have no practicaluse.

RoyLichtenstein painted scenes lifted straight from comic strips, whileJames Rosenquist, a billboard painter, borrowed images fromadvertising and put them together to produce an absurd effect.

Morethan any other art movement before or since, Pop Art had a stronginfluence on popular culture; its bold graphic style was widelyimitated by the very media that had inspired it.