Pop art: inspiring works of art for collectors and investors

The origin of pop art

Pop art (“popular art”) is an art movement that emerged independently of one another in Great Britain and the USA in the mid-1950s. The English version was characterized by the contrast between the austerity and abstinence of consumption in the post-war era and the popularity of media and consumer goods that came to England from the USA. In America, pop art resulted from the awakened self-confidence of American art towards European art.

Many art historians regard the Englishman Richard Hamilton as the founder of Pop Art. His painting”Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?” It dates from 1956 and is considered the first work of the new art movement. The collage, barely recognizable as pop art for laymen, was to be understood as an attack on the society of the time, characterized by advertising and consumption, and laid the foundation for an entire period of art. Hamilton's work also served as a motif for the “This is Tomorrow” exhibition poster, an event organized by the British Independent Group, which translated advertising and mass media into the concept of art.

Pop art achieved international recognition in subsequent years and celebrated its peak in the 1960s in the USA. There, pop art was regarded as an alternative to the abstract expressionism prevailing in Europe. Icons such as Andy Warhol were very present in the global art scene up to the 1980s and continue to influence neo-pop artists such as Takashi Murakami.

What defines pop art works of art

In pop art, everyday things and objects, logos, comics, films or advertising materials are presented in a recognizable but distorted way. The motifs used are removed from their original context, isolated and thus changed in their meaning. Pop art impresses with a flat, striking, often large-format and illustrative mode of presentation combined with extreme colors, with pure or primary colors in the foreground. A clear delineation of elements using black lines is also characteristic.

Common techniques include painting, installations and collages, but also printmaking such as offset and screen printing. A popular form of presentation of pop art was the serial sequencing of a motif. Andy Warhol frequently used this stylistic device because it focused both on the mass production of the industrial age and his own artistic interest in serial repetition. One of the most famous examples is Warhol's iconic work “Campbell's Soup Cans”. This series consists of 32 approximately congruent works, as a reflection of the soup producer's 32 different flavors.

The significance of pop art in international art history

Pop art is one of the most important art movements of the second half of the 20th century and influenced advertising, music, design and fashion. In the USA in particular, the realistic works reflected mass culture and social development that could never be achieved in past painting. In contrast to abstract painting, everyday objects should work for themselves and make people aware of them. The original motivation of pop art artists was regained prosperity after the Second World War and the economic miracle including affordable consumer goods. However, the initial enthusiasm later turned into a more critical attitude — triggered by events such as the Vietnam War or the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In this phase of the seemingly perfect (consumer) society, pop art held up a mirror and focused on its weaknesses.

Famous pop art artists and their works

The most important artists of Pop Art include — in addition to the already mentioned Richard Hamilton — Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, whose works are equally popular with collectors and investors:

• Roy Lichtenstein

Born in New York, the artist is considered one of the pioneers of Pop Art and was influenced in the early years by Cubist artists such as Picasso and Brague. His most famous works, which are mostly related to popular advertising and comics Lean, include “Popeye,” “Drowning Girl,” and “Yellow Landscape.”

• James Rosenquist

The trained poster painter was primarily inspired by advertising for his large-format paintings, but also used his art to critique politics. His most expensive auctioned work of art was”Be beautiful”, which changed hands in 2014 for 3,301,000 dollars.

• Andy Warhol

Warhol was and is the most famous and influential pop art artist. His iconic works such as Marilyn, Campell's soup box or Coca-Cola bottles often lived on repetition and were intended to hold up a mirror to consumer-oriented American society. His painting “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” set an auction record for works by Andy Warhol at Sotheby's in New York with 105 million dollars.

• Keith Haring

Keith Haring, born in 1958 in Pennsylvania, was one of the formative artists of the 1980s, whose Works of graphic art were inspired. Haring's most expensive work “UNTITLED” was auctioned off in 2017 for 6,537,500 dollars.

In recent years, interest in pop art on the part of museums and investors has grown enormously again. For example, in 2020, a large Retrospective of Warhol's work exhibited at TATE Modern and the collections in the Whitney Museum, MOMA or Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris were and are crowd-pullers. Major exhibitions not only reward the fame, talent and prestige of pop art artists, but also have a major influence on the price and increase in the value of their works on the art market.

In order to successfully invest in pop art, you should have the necessary expert knowledge, regularly visit galleries and important events, and always stay up to date by reading publications or trade magazines. But online art platforms, which handle the entire investment process in artificial assets in the interests of the investor, are also able to expand their portfolio in a meaningful way with low entry barriers and attractive market opportunities.