Siobhán Sullivan,

Editor (Art)

 

Recently I have been examining the works  various  classic pop artists such as, Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton and their use of mass culture and advertising inspired art to produce satires about society. The quintessentially American and British feel of  the method has resulted in a re-surge in this medium due to the patriotic atmosphere and as a result a hearkening back to  1950′s kitsch attitudes, stirred up by the Olympics this summer.

As a result , when researching the art form I found it interestingthat the most popular and perhaps well known pop artist of the 1960′s was not of American descent. Roy Lichtenstien seems fascinated by American consumerist society and comic books – both of these factors are heavily represented and depicted in his works. It also interested me that pop art has come to stand for patriotic ideas, yet Lichtenstein and his counterparts had created the art form as a sense of parody and criticism of traditional British and American elitist attitudes towards culture.

My favourite piece of Lichtenstien’s work is his piece ‘Whaam’, I think it is also relevant and parodies American and British society today, with its focus on American emotionless, cold and calculated – almost machine - war time destruction and technological superiority, it can be easily referenced to American occupation of middle eastern territories – another interesting and unintended parody of pop arts resurgence. The aspects of 1960′s society that Lichtenstein parodied are ever relevant in today’s society, materialism, consumerism, elitism, sexualisation and gender stereotyping still infiltrate every one of our lives today and so I feel deems Lichtenstien a progressive and forward thinker.