An early pop artist was Andy Warhol, who is known for his drawing of a can of soup.

AS and A Level Art & Design

"Pop art" is a term used to describe popular art, the word popular meaning

everyday life. Pop art also varied greatly, from soup cans to comic book

art to abstract art. Pop artistis often have "satirical or playful

intents." This would mean that a pop artist tries to express himself

through humorous art.

An early pop artist was Andy Warhol, who is known for his drawing of a can

of soup.He was American and was born in 1928. He died in 1987. His works

can be found at the Whitney museum of American Art and at the Museum of

Modern Art.

Another American pop artist was Roy Lichenstein. He was born in 1923 and

is still living. His work can also be found at the Whitney Museum of modern

art and the Museum of Modern Art.

Another pop artist was James Rosenquist. He, too, was American. He was

born in 1933 and has yet to die. His works may be foundat the Museum of

Modern Art and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yet another American pop artist was Larry Rivers. He was born in 1923 and

still lives. His work may be found at the Metropolitian Museum of Art.

Robert Rauschienburg was also an American pop artist. He was born in 1925,

and, like most of the other artists in this essay, still ives. His work may

be found at the Whitney Museum of Art and at the Modern Museum of Art.

I chose to describe As I Opened Fire, by Roy Lichenstein. It was made in

1964 and is the the third of three panels in a narrative arrangement.

As I Opened Fire is magna on a canvas which is 68 X 56. Its composition

reminds of a comic book. It shows 2 guns firing of the side of a ship, with

letters on the top saying "That my ship was below them..." The color scheme

was very interesting. For backround, Lichenstein used grey-blue. For the

guns he used white, grey, and black, giving them a three-dimensional look

using shadowing. For the fire (coming out of the guns) he uses white,

orange, and red, making use of complementary colors. The mood is aggressive

and warlike, in some way indicating that the ship was part of a surprise

attack on an enemey.This picture reminds me of comic book art, in both mood

and composition.

To me, pop art signifies the most recent type of art. Andy Warhol liked to

draw and average soup can. I like to draw desks. Pop art is more complex

than earlier types of art, if not in composition and color, in mood. It can

express many more things than portraits can, and in more interesting ways.

Pop art

Introduction
We are studying many modern art / design movements in lectures and tutorials. There are many modern arts / design movements such as The Bauhaus, Art Nouveua, Dada etc, which were influenced by these periods and also these movements. Any art movements are essential in the study of historical perspectives in design. In these movements, Pop art is one of the most popular design movements. The art influenced many sorts of domains, therefore all sorts of people can enjoy the art lightheartedly. I examined how the dissemination of Pop art constructed cultural distinction and social privilege among artists, among cultural products and among audiences.

-What did the modern art / design movement aim to achieve and communicate?

The male artists moved into the women's domain and pillaged it with impunity. The result was Pop Art, which is the most popular American art movement. Cecile Whiting said, "If the first major pop artist had been a woman, the movement might never have gotten out of the kitchen" . Many pop artists appeared at the end of the 1950's, however real pop art appeared in New York and Europe, especially London in the early 1960's.
Lawrence Alloway, a British art critic first used the term "Pop art" as an explanation of commercial advertisements of "popular art" in the 1950's.
In 1956, Richard Hamilton, a British artist produced a collage, which was the world's first pop art. His definitions (aim) of pop art are as follows:-
- Popular
- The target is young people
- Witty
- Sexy
- Fascinating
-To make large profits (Big Business!!)

It was of big significance when he expressed his opinion in the art domain, because his opinions were the opposite definition of the existing art and consumer culture adopted by pop art. It means that pop art manipulated commercial imagery and techniques from consumer culture. A sampling of the critical rubric chosen to modify the type of "culture" evoked by Pop art would include "the mass, "signboard," "commercial," popular," "mass media".

-What was the political and cultural situation that shaped the development of the modern / design movement?

Pop art in Britain appeared earlier than in the United States. Pop art was a new design movement for artists in New York. It served as an incentive in many young artists. On the other hand, European culture was not shocked, because they just accepted pure abstract paintings. Many countries saw the United States as a world leader after World WarⅡ. Many countries were influenced by the United States.
France was the center of movements in the arts in the world before the war, however it was changing. A stronghold was already in New York. Europe had a history of important dignity. Many artists of Dada and Surrealism left Europe during the war and immigrated to New York, because they got tired of the situation in Europe. This is one of the reasons that the arts circumstance changed. The United States became an abundant country after an economic recovery and was becoming the country.

This is a preview of the whole essay

-Pop art and Pop music

"By the mid 1960's Pop art had become fashionable and a cultural force capable of influencing young Pop musicians". Many American musicians appeared during this era.
However the Beatles, the Rolling stones etc, who were all British musicians, conquered world music trends at that time. Britain was regarded as the best country in music, however it was changing little by little after the great depression.
The United States developed pop art from existing British works and played a part in developing pop art as we know it today. There was a subculture environment. For example, the blues and gospel, which was considered the "black" music and Rock 'n' -Roll and Country and Western, which was considered the "white" music. Young British people were crazy about this music, which was actually heterogeneous. These people were influenced by Rock 'n' -Roll.
Product development in products that did not need to have high performances and functions, were developed just need to thinking only about the appearance for it to become popular. For example, there were many Cola companies. Cola tastes almost the same to many people, the taste was not important. The Developers needed to think more about the advertisements and packaging.
As a result pop art was used for many different types of advertisements and packaging, especially on music posters and Record covers and CD covers, this is because the art is really fascinating. Professional artists, who made unique merchandise and stimulated consumers. Pop art spread rapidly for advertising media of Western music.

In addition, there was a big movement in Japan. "A term encountered in relation to the popular prints of the Edo period is Ukiyo-E, which usually translated as pictures of the floating world. The prints, which were produced entirely by hand, without resource to printing press, by a team of craftsmen employed and overseen by publisher and were expressly to give pleasure to ordinary men and women". "The print was medieval Buddhist concept denoting the transience of life in this 'world of suffering', however by the mid-seventeenth century the meaning had altered and the transience of life was seen as excuse for enjoying frivolous, extravagant, pleasurable and above all". The prints were the most popular form of Far Eastern art to reach the Western world.

-Were there any philosophical theories of that time which may have influenced the modern art / design movement?

"Pop art was growing up with "Consumer culture", which throughout refer to the women's domain precisely because of the commodities, the retail spaces, the marketing techniques, as well as the many characterizations of shopping behavior that mattered , was female". Pop art created an aesthetic climate in which the political aesthetic of feminism could thrive and develop its critique.
Some pop artists said that the art is the most pure form of expression. If the art expressed something, the viewer will notice and find it to be remarkable, which is not only how it looks, but also how it is drawn.
The Artists individuality is a valuable natural talent, which is reflected in the work of the pop artist, as it is interesting. Tom Wesselmann said "I can't explain about the Pop art in speech. It is really difficult for me."

-What impact did the modern art / design movement have on visual communications and the way in which we read visual images? This can be illustrated by comparing visual images from the movement with contemporary advertising campaigns or designed objects that draw upon the style of the movement you have chosen.

"Pop art advertisements first appeared in abundance between 1964 and 1966 in home and service magazines for women of the middle and upper-middle class, as well as in publications for an educated audience of both sexes", besides, the art was used for window displays such as foodstuffs, female clothes, jewels and so on. Two masters of pop artists are introduced:-

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein, who was born in New York in 1923. He was an abstract painter at first, but one day his son begged him to draw Mickey Mouse on his canvas. At that time, he was aware of Pop Art and then he began to use typical elements of commercial art, comics and advertisements in his drawings and painting, which is called cartoon style or comic book style. Vivid colours of coating, thick outlines and the primary colours are mainly composed of his paintings. Especially, he established unique style that polka dots of printing, which was magnified (Fig 2). "In recent years, advertising firms have revived a period style derived from Lichtenstein's paintings of the 1960's that the industry itself refers to as them .

Work Introduction

Fig 1. Roy Lichtenstein "As I Opened Fire…" , Magna on canvas; three panels, each, 1964

"A sequence of three panels takes a progressively closer view of machine gun barrels attached to the wing of an airplane at the same time the word introduce the bigger picture of tactics involve in the battle".

Fig 2. Roy Lichtenstein "Girl in mirror", Steel and enamel, 1964

A girl's face is covered by dots with a stencil, it is designed to be conspicuous. This pop art is a typical sample of his work. As seen the character is of large proportion to the size of the actual printing.

Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, who was born in Pittsburgh, America in 1928. He is the son of Czechoslovakian immigrants. When he was born, America was developing into a consumption society, which meant that commercialism was connected with children from birth. While he was growing up, there were many goods and products of popular cartoon characters available.
His first job was as a display designer, he then produced many advertisements and published his own works, which fascinated a large number of people. When he stood on his own feet as an artist in his workshop, called the "factory", he did mass production. Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, and many other movie stars were produced in the factory.
"He often procured the photographs for his silk-screen, never relinquished its claim on the private selves of these stars, even while it maintained their public identities as celebrities". He was living and dead in the forefront of pop art. Andy Warhol was really a great master of the art.

Work Introduction

Fig 1. Andy Warhol, "Big Campbell's Soup Can", Synthetic polymer paint, 1962.

"By 1961, the scene was definitely changing - photography posed a threat to illustration and Warhol began to lose communications so he decided to advertise alone". He produced his first portrayals of the Campbell's soup cans, which sent shiver down the spine, the supermarket display became art gallery. The actual products for sale in the supermarket were often more or less identical, advertisers concentrated their attention on how best to sway the shopper choose a specific brand name.

Fig 2. Andy Warhol, Elvis Ⅰ.Ⅱ, silk-screen on acrylic, 1964.

Warhol's silk-screens of male stars focus on the public image of these stars, and in so doing suggest that their masculine heterosexually is not inherent, natural, or private.

Conclusion
"Pop art and its exhibition have, over the years, prompted numerous writers to measure movement against the benchmark constituted by the culture of consumption so explicitly evoked in the works".
"Pop aesthetic, assuming a mantle of cultural authority as they positioned themselves with newly reformulated relation between high and low art in the early 1960's. Pop art and its various sources and derivatives, which are contingent, whether formulated in the early 1960's with the clarity of absolute certainly or presented at that time".
The art does not close with the end of the movement, as long as we continue to talk about Pop art.

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Surrealism

Surrealism, is a movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism's emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the "rationalism" that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. According to the major spokesman of the movement, the poet and critic André Breton, who published "The Surrealist Manifesto" in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in "an absolute reality, a surreality." Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike.

The major Surrealist painters are Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, André Masson, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and Joan Miró. With its emphasis on content and free form, Surrealism provided a major alternative to the contemporary, highly formalistic Cubist movement and was largely responsible for perpetuating in modern painting the traditional emphasis on content.

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Rene Magritte 1897-1967

Belgian surrealist painter, born in Lessines. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. His first one-man exhibition was in Brussels in 1927. At that time Magritte had already begun to paint in the style, closely akin to surrealism, that was predominant throughout his long career. A meticulous, skillful technician, he is noted for works that contain an extraordinary juxtaposition of ordinary objects or an unusual context that gives new meaning to familiar things. This juxtaposition is frequently termed magic realism, of which Magritte was the prime exponent. In addition to fantastic elements, he displayed a mordant wit, creating surrealist versions of famous paintings, as in Madame Récamier de David, in which an elaborate coffin is substituted for the reclining woman in the famous portrait by Jacques Louis David. Magritte's work was first shown in the United States in New York City in 1936 and again in that city in two retrospectives, one at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965 (U.S. tour, 1966), and the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992.

The matrix

The Story (if you’ve already seen it, you can skip this)
Basic summary for those not familiar with the first film (which you should watch again if you’re going to see this one): One hundred years or more ago, the humans lost a war with machines powered by Artificial Intelligence. In a final attempt to stop the machines, the humans did something to the atmosphere to obliterate the solar power on which the machines ran. To adapt, the machines began “growing” millions of humans to use as unconscious batteries. To keep the human minds active, the machines invented an artificial world in which the humans could live out their lives.

Once aware of that the world around them was an artificial version of 1999, a small number of humans escaped from their pods to set up a real city deep under the earth from which they waged war against the machines from both inside the artificial Matrix and in the real world.

Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and the crew of an underground ship called Nebuchadnezzar rescued Neo (Keanu Reeves), believing him to be “The One” the prophecies said would end the war. Within the Matrix (which the freed humans found a way to enter and exit), Neo discovered he had superpowers unlike any other human but much like the human-looking Agents, programs used by the Matrix to wipe out human opposition.

“Matrix Reloaded” takes place not long after the first movie. Neo (Keanu Reeves) now knows he is “The One,” but he’s not sure what he should do next. While waiting for direction from The Oracle, the crew learns that 250,000 Sentinels (attack machines) from the Machine Army are tunneling through the earth to destroy the human city of Zion.

Neo and his friends must figure out a way to shut down the Matrix before the machines destroy the city. That includes figuring out who to trust and what choices to make to reach their goal.

This is complicated by Neo’s nightmares about the future, as well as a former Agent named Smith who is outside the control of the Matrix and is determined to destroy Neo. The humans must also battle several rogue programs and humans who exist within the Matrix but follow their own agenda.

The Verdict
The first movie took action filmmaking to a whole other level. The intensity or the action combined with cutting-edge visual effects like “bullet-time” and 360-degree camera angles made it a viewing experience unlike any other movie. On top of that, the story challenged viewers with layers of philosophy and seemingly spiritual metaphors that got your mind spinning for weeks and months afterward.

“Matrix Reloaded” takes the whole thing up a notch, overwhelming both the senses and the mind with complicated plot, dialog, and breath-taking action sequences that just go on forever. Is it as good as the first one? Yes and no. The visual effects, stunts, and action are all much better than the first one, without question. I’ve never seen anything like it.

On the other hand, “Reloaded” isn’t breaking new ground in the way that movie did. It’s not as mind-blowingly original. And, of course, it’s part 2 of 3. The movie literally leaves you hanging mid-action with the words “To Be Concluded.” So it doesn’t satisfy the way the first movie did. (Be sure to wait through the credits for a preview of the next film.)

Still, the action sequences are undeniably awesome—and intense. From the exhausting freeway chase sequence that includes multiple crashes, explosions, near misses, and a desperate fight on top of a moving semi—to a ballet-like fight between Neo and multiple dozens of Smiths—to a nighttime bullet-time sequence in which two characters fire multiple shots at each other while falling from a the upper reaches of a high-rise building—you just can’t look away.

The movie also looks amazing, with the dark color palette and the Wachowski brothers’s ability to compose every frame, especially inside the Matrix, into a digital work of art.

On the story side, good writing and acting lays a foundation that helps you feel with the main characters. The story loses a little steam when it goes broader to the city of Zion, including the political struggle there and those who seem to worship Neo. The scenes in the city feel more like standard sci-fi, in the tradition of Star Wars or Star Trek.

Then there are all those speeches from Morpheus, Smith, and other humans or programs inside the Matrix. Long, head-spinning speeches straight out of chapters in philosophy textbooks about choice, destiny, and control. Just when you think you’re following, you lose the thread and the whole thing comes unraveled. This and the following film are going to keep those college classes on the “Matrix” supplied with material for years to come.

Worldview
Here’s where the Matrix movies get really interesting. Many Christians caught the undeniable spiritual themes in the first movie. Books, college classes, and youth group studies on the subject have been written and discussed and even used for evangelism.

Here’s the thumbnail version of how the plot can be laid over a Christian worldview: The world we experience around us is as artificial as the Matrix. Most people don’t realize it because they are spiritually dead, caught in the deceptive traps of materialism, pleasure-seeking,, and status. Those who do realize and commit to knowing the truth are made alive to real life—the spiritual world. They realize that “the world” (1 John 2:16) is temporary, deceptive, and won’t ultimately satisfy.

Once alive and free from the control of the world, these people come under attack by “agents” of the enemy within the world (demons). These agents can take possession of the spiritually dead and influence others. The key to victory is realizing that “the world” no longer controls us, giving up our fear of death, and hoping in Zion (or a new life in heaven after this life has ended).

It’s a compelling and hopeful way to look at the story. However, as “Reloaded” emphasizes with visual cues throughout the film, the same basic ideas could be applied to many religions that believe in the limitations of the visible world. The filmmakers certainly haven’t come out and said that the “Matrix” is built on any kind of Christian worldview. Indeed, many principles of the Matrix films could easily fit a Buddhist worldview.

The emphasis in “Reloaded” is on wrestling with the difference between the responsibility of human choice and the inevitability of destiny. Or, put in Christian terms, freewill versus predestination. Is what happens bound to happen or can human decisions change the outcome?

The movie doesn’t reach any conclusions here, because the story isn’t over. The Bible seems to teach both that God maintains complete control over the universe while mysteriously allowing for human freewill to have an impact on human history. I don’t get that, either.

The bottom line for Christians that the Matrix doesn’t ever approach is this: Do we trust God’s love, power, and goodness? He’s not a machine; He’s a personal God who loves us; who is infinitely good; and who is powerful enough to ultimately make good triumph. If we trust Him, we can wrestle with all these big issues of life without worrying that the answers we reach will somehow leave us hopeless.

Toward the end of the film, one character says something like, “Hope is the human race’s greatest weakness and the source of your greatest power.” That’s true. Hope in the truth makes us undefeatable. Hope in a lie leads us to chase emptiness and death. We believe that our hope in God through Jesus will not disappoint (Isaiah 49:23, Romans 5:5). We will be saved from the Matrix.