Pop
Art
Pop Art is a movement that began in Germany in the 1950s, but had its most famous practitioners--at least in this country--in Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Both used ads and comics for inspiration; the latter is most famous for his work mimicking comic books beginning in 1961. Of course, Bizet borrowed folk tunes in composing Carmen. Greek statues exist mainly because of Roman copies. Renaissance means “rebirth;” fifteenth century art and architecture copied from the past
Not all artists appreciated the fact that Lichtenstein copied their work, despite the fact that comic book artists had been doing it for years, the least talented ones lifting the work of better-paid strip artists like Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond and Hal Foster. (In the comic book world, copying another’s art was called either a “swipe” or an “homage,” depending on intent.) Comic book artists may have resented the fact that while they got $50 a page for their work, Lichtenstein was commanding gallery prices of $50,000 for his--and had the wherewithal to hire as many as five assistants at one time! Lichtenstein mostly abandoned comic books as a source for inspiration after 1964, but returned to comic motifs toward the end of his career in the 1990s. (I suspect this reflected the prices that "comic book" paintings commanded relative to other paintings he did during the interim.)
Warhol and Lichtenstein both saw the day when artists stole their styles back. Lichtenstein’s broad lines and “Ben Day” dots can be seen frequently in ads and on magazine covers today. In this case, art continues to imitate art. If Lichtenstein were still alive today, he couldn't get too mad about my swiping his style for many of my paintings. Roy, consider it an homage.
POP ART: Acrylic on canvas. 2 feet by 3 feet. Unframed; wraparound canvas with art (including artist's signature) continuing around the edge. You've probably seen some version of the famous L-O-V-E painting by the artist Robert Indiana. I saw the original L-O-V-E painting at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but I didn't have an image handy when I did this signature painting for another one of my exhibits. I used the six primary colors (somewhat muted) for the letters P-O-P-A-R-T, then pasted vellum photocopies of comic strips into the background. When this appeared in one exhibit, a fellow artist, whose specialty is abstractions, asked, "What do the letters mean?" Well, not everybody understands Pop Art. $750
OH HAL… IT's WONDERFUL! Acrylic on canvas. 4 feet by 4 feet. Unframed; wraparound canvas with art (including artist's signature) continuing around the edge. Believe it or not, this began with a panel in the comic book Iron Man (104), where Madam Masque is escorted to Tony Starke's mansion and says, "It - it's beautiful, Iron Man!" Two panels later, they're looking at portraits of his parents over a fireplace. That was the start, but the final version below has fled far from the inspiration. My wife Rose posed for the hair, although the gal pictured in three slightly different versions doesn't look like her. $500
RINSO: Acrylic on canvas. 60 inches by 40 inches. Unframed; wraparound canvas with art (including artist's signature) continuing around the edge. This is about as pure an example of how Pop Art works as any. I was browsing through items offered for sale in a Cracker Barrel restaurant on a forgotten Interstate highway and came across a small booklet, 1934 Pages of Time. Among several old-time ads displayed was one for Rinso. Rose claims they don't even sell Rinso any more. While waiting for a buyer, this painting hangs (appropriately) over the washtub in our basement. $1,000
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PYRAMIDS: Acrylic on canvas. 20 BY 16 inches. Framed. There's also an interesting story behind the genesis of the painting on the right. Connie Kasal is a fellow artist, friend and teacher. Several years ago, Rose and I acquired one of her paintings: two females sitting on a beach. While working in a class with Connie, I thought it might be fun to translate her impressionistic painting into a Pop Art painting. Earlier, I had seen Roy Lichtenstein's Three Pyramids at the Museum of Art in Des Moines, Iowa. It was huge: 17 feet wide! Somehow, in my version Connie's females came out looking like Roy's pyramids. The basic composition is hers; the style his. You might not be able to find place in your living room for the Lichtenstein painting, or be able to afford his work; mine is more easily hung and more easily bought. Want to puchase Connie's painting as well? Make me an offer. $250
DAN DARE: Acrylic on canvas. Diptych (two paintings); 6 feet by 3 feet. Unframed; wraparound canvas with art (including artist's signature) continuing around the edge. A "diptych," if you're unfamiliar with the term is two paintings that compliment each other and hang together. Lichtenstein did a few diptychs. Renaissance painters more often did triptychs, featuring three panels, usually painted for an altar. This painting too has a strange genesis. Dan Dare is a British comic strip from the 1960s. I picked up a comic book containing this strip during a visit to Edinburgh, Scotland in the summer of 1999. At the end of the year, the Michigan City Area Artists were planning an exhibit with the theme "Millennium." Figuring science-fiction to be an appropriate subject, I did the above painting, lifting the text from the British book, but also borrowing bits and pieces from other sci-fi strips, particularly Sky Masters by Jack Kirby and Wally Wood. The final result--like so many of my Pop Art paintings--looks nothing like its origins. $750