The History of Pop Art During the late 1950s and early 1960s, a cultural innovation was born in the United States and United Kingdom. This era of art work is known as Pop Art. Pop Art is known as one of the most controversial, surprising, and unique forms of art. In the year of 1954, Lawrence Alloway created the term “popular culture” which refers to things such as advertisements, photos, and magazines (Understanding Art 502). Soon after popular culture became familiar to artists, Pop Art slowly evolved. Pop Art challenges artists to channel familiar objects in their work. The technique may also give artists the ability to make the art surprisingly rare to their audience. Through various experiments, the 3 artists in this movement created objective art pertaining to everyday objects and the media. The artists chosen to be recognized to have a significant role in the Pop Art movement include: Richard Hamilton, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. Although each of these artists maintain a specific place in Pop Art, they have their own unique styles and legacies most artists still recognize throughout the world.
As Pop Art developed in the United Kingdom, a British man named Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) was known as the creator of the Pop Art movement. Hamilton grew up as an outsider, but he knew at a young age that drawing was his one and only true passion. Being kicked out of several classes for not following the rules only led Hamilton to expand as an artist. In the early