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Pop Art Is Alive: Classics and Modern Artworks

July 21st, 2008 in Monday Inspiration | 72 Comments

As a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s, pop art aims to emphasize the nature of things popular in our daily routine. In pop art, most artists use mechanical means of rendering techniques that downplay the expressive hand of the artist. Being an art movement, it has some expressive attributes other styles do not possess.

In pop art, a vivid manifestation of pop culture reflects in vibrant colors and busy, sometimes hardly recognizable artistic approaches. Street culture, trash, collage, comic books, grunge, graffiti and photo montage are typical design elements that were widely used by designers and artists a few decades ago. And since grunge found its way back and became popular again, it makes perfect sense to analyze the design elements of pop art which are similar to this artistic style.

This post presents 75 outstanding examples of classic and modern pop art. Hopefully, everybody will find some inspiration for future works or at least smile when scanning the images presented below. Please notice: pop art can be quite vibrant and not necessarily pretty — in fact, some examples show that it doesn’t have to be pretty at all.

Please take a look at the following similar and related posts:

Classics of pop art

Richard Hamilton
Hamilton’s collage Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956) is considered by some critics and historians to be the first work of Pop Art. The piece has all the human senses cast in various modes; the purpose of the picture was to “provoke acute awareness of the sensory functions in an environmental situation”.

Roy Lichtenstein
Lichtenstein’s most famous image is arguably Whaam! (1963), one of the earliest known examples of pop art, adapted a comic-book panel from a 1962 issue of DC Comics’ All-American Men of War. The painting depicts a fighter aircraft firing a rocket into an enemy plane, with a red-and-yellow explosion. Another famous example is the M-Maybe Girl (1965) which has become an icon for the pop art movement.

Robert Rauschenberg
Rauschenberg is perhaps most famous for his “Combines” of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. While the Combines are both painting and sculpture, Rauschenberg has also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance.

Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat gained popularity, first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist. Basquiat’s paintings continue to influence modern day artists and command high prices.

Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns is best known for his painting Flag (1954-55), which he painted after having a dream of the American flag. His work is often described as a ‘Neo-Dadaist’, as opposed to pop art, even though his subject matter often includes images and objects from popular culture. Still, many compilations on pop art include Jasper Johns as a pop artist because of his artistic use of classical iconography.

Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was a central figure in the pop art movement. His early paintings show images taken from cartoons and advertisements, hand-painted with paint drips. Those drips emulated the style of successful abstract expressionists (such as Robert Rauschenberg). Eventually, Warhol pared his image vocabulary down to the icon itself—to brand names, celebrities, dollar signs—and removed all traces of the artist’s “hand” in the production of his paintings.

Keith Haring
An artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s. Haring’s imagery has become a universally recognized visual language of the 20th century.

Peter Blake
During the late 1950s, Peter Blake became one of the best known British pop artists. His paintings from this time included imagery from advertisements, music hall entertainment, and wrestlers, often including collaged elements. On the Balcony (1955-57) is a significant early work and still stands as one of the iconic pieces of British Pop Art, showing Blake’s interest in combining images from pop culture with fine art. The work, which appear to be a collage but is in fact wholly painted, shows, among other things, a boy holding Edouard Manet’s The Balcony, badges and magazines. It was inspired by a painting by Honoré Sharrer depicting workers holding famous paintings.

Peter Phillips
An English artist who is one of the pioneers of the Pop Art movement. Philips’s work ranges from oils on canvas to multi-media compositions and collages to sculptures and architecture. His most popular painting For Men Only – Starring MM and BB (1961) is created using oil, wood and collage on canvas.

Tom Wesselmann
Different from other pop art artists, Tom Wesselmann specialized in found art collages. Wesselmann started working on a series of Still Lifes, continuing the use of collage but incorporating real objects: he picked up shelves, television sets, a refrigerator wherever he happened to find them, and turned them into new assemblages.

Wayne Thiebaud
Thiebaud is an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, however, his works, executed during the 50s and 60s, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud uses heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.

David Hockney
David Hockney is best known from his swimming pool paintings from 1967-1968 (below: A Bigger Splash (1967)). An important contributor to the Pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century.

Robert Indiana
Robert Indiana was using distinctive imagery drawing on commercial art approaches blended with existentialism, that gradually moved toward what Indiana calls “sculptural poems”. Indiana’s work often consists of bold, simple, iconic images, especially numbers and short words like “EAT”, “HUG”, and “LOVE”. One of the best known works by Indiana is Love Rising (1968) displayed below.

Showcase of modern pop art artists

Kevin Cherry
Kevin Cherry’s collages resembles the work of the artists of the 60s, however, it is often taken to the next level as digital art is often also embedded in his work.

Mario Luis
35th Street Series.

Mark Malazarte
Dia De Los Muertos!

David Habben

Luis Toledo
Serie Mnenósine.

Travis Stearns
Daily Visual Language.

Rodolfo Biglie
This is not freedom.

Sung-Ho Bae
The winner of Adobe - Education:2007 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Title: Nine inverse proportion problems we have.

Coke Doggy

Dave Kinsey

Unknown artist 1
Please let us know the name of the artist in the comments!

Eduardo Recife
Misprinted Type.

Unknown artist 2
Please let us know the name of the artist in the comments!

Mario Wagner

Richard Mia

Brad Yeo

Unknown artist 3
Please let us know the name of the artist in the comments!

Unknown artist 4
Please let us know the name of the artist in the comments!

Sean Ryan Cooley
Hello My Generation Is…

Juan Carlos Federico
Restatos 1.

Thiago Santana

Mary Bogdan

Futuro Woman
The Drug War. “I’ve recently acquired some pretty amazing vintage ephemera. It’s all so incredible that I am loathe to actually cut or glue it. Thus, this is a collage made using scanner photography–I arranged the pieces using the scanner bed as my canvas, then took the photo with the scanner. Now the paper is all back in its box, awaiting another moment of adoration.”

Sleep Tight
This piece is set to go to Hamburg Germany for the show “Don’t Wake Daddy II” in December. Created by Jason Limon.

Some Day A Real Rain Will Come…
Sclater Street, London.

Sources and Resources

Published in Monday Inspiration, July 21st, 2008
Tags: design, inspiration, pop art, retro, showcases, vintage

1.

rikketok (July 21st, 2008, 2:35 am)

nice!
2.

Tony (July 21st, 2008, 2:43 am)

Smashing Magazine again lives up to its high quality standards! Excellent post! Keep smashing!!!
3.

liam (July 21st, 2008, 3:07 am)

Enjoyed this collection, particularly the style of Kevin Cherry, nice stuff.
4.

greynor (July 21st, 2008, 3:11 am)

I don’t get pop art.
It’s dirty (by means: messy), the color’s are ugly and i never ever will put a picture with pop art on any of my walls.
Pop art really is the only art direction i don’t like.
5.

Thomas (July 21st, 2008, 3:14 am)

Besides enjoying the collection I wonder - did you have any copyright issues in posting all that artwork here?
6.

Ralph (July 21st, 2008, 3:34 am)

Ah… a new post finally. Good stuff…
7.

cameronqueen.com (July 21st, 2008, 3:41 am)

Some great stuff here. I’m not a pop-art fan per se, but I think there is definately inspiration to be had here.

Just look at some of the less ‘messy’ pieces, there are influences and trends hiding in there which we are expereincing in our design world now, or have in the last half century. Love it or hate it, Pop Art continues to be hugely influential.. just like Smashing Mag, keep up the good work in broadening our mindset!
8.

Adam Alyan (July 21st, 2008, 4:04 am)

Very nice recap of an era of the modern art history!
9.

Eduardo (July 21st, 2008, 4:24 am)

Good Images, but i must say that two artists, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, are not from the Pop movement. They are pre-pop, and influenced the movement, but did not make part of it, mainly because of their themes for works… Tottaly different.
But, the others, very good! Thanks!
10.

chris (July 21st, 2008, 4:27 am)

yay!
great post!
11.

Two Socks (July 21st, 2008, 4:38 am)

Hmm I agree Pop art is certainly not my flavour. But to each there own.
12.

ozzy (July 21st, 2008, 5:01 am)

once again great post.
13.

flko (July 21st, 2008, 5:21 am)

POP has not died, POP lives
Link []
14.

Niki Brown (July 21st, 2008, 5:33 am)

David Habben’s work is interesting!

Niki Brown Link [nikibrown.com]
15.

julllles (July 21st, 2008, 5:54 am)

bravo et merci ! j’adore !
16.

speedcu (July 21st, 2008, 6:24 am)

I love pop art! Thanks for the great collection.
Still one of my favourites is Keith Haring - I like his work very much!
17.

Pochi (July 21st, 2008, 6:28 am)

I think the Unknown artist 3 is Tim Marrs because the picture looks very similar than hes work.
18.

Cobra Kai (July 21st, 2008, 6:31 am)

Unknown Artist #2 is sean McCabe - Link [www.rappart.com]
19.

Cobra Kai (July 21st, 2008, 6:32 am)

Unknown Artist #2 is Sean McCabe
20.

Moritz Feierabend (July 21st, 2008, 6:37 am)

Very nice selection !!
21.

elaineb (July 21st, 2008, 6:46 am)

Lovely art-Big fan of Andy Warhol myself.
22.

David Hellmann (July 21st, 2008, 6:54 am)

Damn good! I love this style!!!! WOW WOW WOW!!!
23.

John Braine (July 21st, 2008, 6:56 am)

Excellent. I did something similar to the very last one on my Link [www.johnbraine.com].
24.

Zac (July 21st, 2008, 7:25 am)

Awesome! (Shouldn’t it be titled Classics and Contemporary Artworks?)
25.

Aaron Ortiz (July 21st, 2008, 7:46 am)

You guys are beautiful, keep it coming, long live Smashing Magazine!
26.

stn001 (July 21st, 2008, 7:50 am)

Nice collection! :-)
27.

ana (July 21st, 2008, 7:58 am)

I LOVED this post!
Keep it up!
28.

Nathan A (July 21st, 2008, 9:51 am)

Besides enjoying the collection I wonder - did you have any copyright issues in posting all that artwork here?

Yes, listing a bunch of artists and their work to a large design audience, for free, with small, screen sized, JPEG compressed thumbnails is such an awful ethics violation that I feel like vomiting.
29.

Tommy Edwards (July 21st, 2008, 10:07 am)

You should stop posting crap like this - pop art, vintage and retro is boring and uninspiring. Sometimes I really think that you’ve run out of ideas? Stop this crap, please.
30.

Chris (July 21st, 2008, 11:01 am)

Good review, although I’m a little surprised Banksy didn’t make your list of currently working pop artists. “His” strong iconic imagery and social commentary definitely puts him in league with the others on this list, and you did include at least one other street artist.
31.

val p. (July 21st, 2008, 12:49 pm)

if you need high resolution, rights cleared, images of pop and contemporary art you can browse Link [photoservice.electaweb.it], an italian based image agency specialized in art (yes, that’s pay stuff).
32.

Alexey Bass (July 21st, 2008, 1:07 pm)

Amazing minds! Thanks!
33.

Zane (July 21st, 2008, 1:35 pm)

I’m not really a huge fan of it, it just looks bleh. But I guess theres some cool pop art.
34.

SJL (July 21st, 2008, 1:46 pm)

Excellent collection I would only add Ben Frost to the modern Pop artists. He’s stuff is incredible. You can check it out at Link [benfrostisdead.com]
35.

Anh Huy PHAM (July 21st, 2008, 3:20 pm)

I think Smashing Team must add Yves Klein. He is also a great artist Pop Art
36.

Thomas (July 21st, 2008, 3:29 pm)

unknown artist one is none other then Pietari Posti
37.

runutq (July 21st, 2008, 5:19 pm)

Very nice selection indeed, thank you for posting such vast showcases.
But looking at some of the artworks that qualified to enter your modern pop art artists, I thought Link [shop.slowlydownward.com] - the radiohead cd covers guy - would fit nicely in, wouldn’t he ?
38.

Stefano (July 22nd, 2008, 2:57 am)

good!
39.

Jason (July 22nd, 2008, 4:39 am)

It’s kind of cruel to compare some of the more famous pop art pieces with this collection of modern “pop art.” Although I can appreciate some of the modern pieces they are not part of the initial movement and moment in time - part of the beauty is the originality of the movement. Creating a collage that looks like a Warhol or Lichtenstein doesn’t cut it - you need an original approach. Pop art is about taking the ordinary and putting a spin on it; therefore unique.
40.

Chris (July 22nd, 2008, 4:41 am)

Its interesting to speculate which of these are pop-’art’ and which are pop-’design’ - Lovely collection
41.

Jason Beaird (July 22nd, 2008, 5:51 am)

Excellent collection, SM! I
42.

Rodolfo (July 22nd, 2008, 7:49 am)

thanks for showing one of my illustrations
43.

Mark Malazarte (July 22nd, 2008, 7:47 pm)

thanks for including my “Dia de los Muertos” piece in your pop art retrospective! it’s an honor
44.

Roberto Cecchi (July 22nd, 2008, 9:39 pm)

Articolo impressionante! Complimenti!
Awesome post! Congratulations!
45.

Shubz (July 23rd, 2008, 4:15 am)

I love Pop Art and this is an excellent collection of artists. I think there were others that were missed like James Rosenquist, Jim Dine and Claes Oldenburg , a master sculptor. I was never really a fan of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Another 20th century artist might be Romeo Britto.
46.

Cosmi (July 23rd, 2008, 5:04 am)

Pop Arts are great ! Thanks SM for this article.
47.

Michael [Boicozine] (July 23rd, 2008, 6:07 am)

I love Smashing magazine and read it all the time. It seems to get better and better, but then every once in a while you slide back down the ladder again. If you are going to talk about ‘Pop Art’ you can’t then drop in a bunch of mucky collaged shite in the name of ‘grunge’ (a term that was dreamt up by marketing executives trying to get a handle on selling the noise created by a band called ‘Mudhoney’). The original idea behind Pop Art was to take the commercial world and shine all those ideas and concept back at it. Please read up on Andy Warhol and the Factory and the many ideas behind what was going on at the time before mooshing together another lumpen mess like the collection you have here.
48.

Jason (July 23rd, 2008, 9:58 am)

I really like Pop Art ! Thank, this is really a nice collection !
49.

sunil (July 23rd, 2008, 1:15 pm)

Nice to see coverage of contemporary art in Smashing. As a Artist and Software professional I really appreciate it.

Have a few objections one of which is that Wayne Thiebaud may have some issues with you associating him with Pop Art no matter what wikipedia says:
50.

Adrian (July 24th, 2008, 9:59 am)

Wow! What a great, great post.

I’m faminilar with most classic pop artsts, and it’s always cool seeing their works. But I didn’t know any of the modern examples, and it was great seeing them side by side with older works.

Thanks for an awesome post!
51.

fred (July 24th, 2008, 6:31 pm)

nice collection
52.

paul (July 24th, 2008, 10:04 pm)

Hmmm how about some bansky ?
53.

Anthony (July 25th, 2008, 10:45 pm)

Love this article - great stuff. Just saw this artist earlier who’s doing some modern day pop art work: Link [www.brooklynartproject.com]
54.

Matthias (July 26th, 2008, 2:24 am)

Mel Ramos is missing…
55.

Keila (July 31st, 2008, 4:01 pm)

I love this post… I am currently working on a collage and was totally inspired by these examples! It was exactly the kind of art i was in the mood for seeing! thanks!
56.

Doug (August 6th, 2008, 10:14 am)

Someone who is not on the list that could be considered is the ex frontman of Guided by Voices. Robert Pollard’s collages have been getting more and more attention in the art world as of late. He might not be good enough for the elite crowd, however the pricing on them is very economical for any new collector.
57.

Joris Hoogendoorn (August 8th, 2008, 3:56 am)

We (Locografix & The Vector Monkeys) used popart as big inspiration for our contribution for GreyTones 2005: Link [www.thevectormonkeys.nl]

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