POP ART MIHAI ALEXANDRU DOLDOR - PERFORMING AND PRODUCTION ARTS STC YR 1

INTRODUCTION TO POP ART Pop art is an art movement that first initiated in Europe in the 50s and then moved to the United States in the late 50s and it became popular in It is interesting that Pop Art moved to America at similar times when R&B and pop music extended their interest for Americans. Using bright, exciting and hippy colours, pop art is a representation of everyday life, which is based on banal and ordinary subjects enlighten with effectiveness. Pop art was massively used for film and commercials due to the interest that it brought to people as it was simple, colourful and catchy. Pop art had a huge impact on pictures of pop artists and movie stars as well as on comics and food packaging. It was also used to express emotions such as sadness, love, anger and even happiness, through over exaggerated pictures.

POP ART IS STILL USED TODAY FOR ADVERTS AND COMMERCIALS

JASPER JOHNS He believed that art mirrors real life. ‘ Johns believes that we should not look upon a painting as a representation or illusion but as an object with its own reality.’ This emphasises that even though pop art is just an imagery, a vibrant exaggeration shown in colours, it all has meaning which reflects back on real life.

ANDY WARHOL Andy was a commercial artist, and his work is mostly about culture, adverts, movies, TV and media. He is well known for his famous pop art prints of Marilyn Monroe. He was fascinated by ordinary, second hand things and he believed that after being used and deteriorated, they had a meaning which he wanted to show through his art. In the 1960s, Andy Warhol created several “mass- produced” images from photographs of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Jackie Onassis

POP ART & SWEET CHARITY Pop art is an art movement which was very popular at the time when Sweet Charity was set. Pop art is something that we need to find within the set and the marketing adverts such as posters, leaflets and brochure. Pop art can be found on the colour of some characters costumes, e.g. Charity may wear a bright red dress. Also, the musical is set at a time where hippy style was a fashion, and pop art can be associated with many different hippy outfits.e.g. colourful square shirts. Lights and projection are an important feature of the show. Lights must be colourful(red, blue, purple) during big spender and scenes with the girls changing room. Projection is mainly used when locations and scene names are displayed during the show. We can always animate these with pop art pictures that relate to Sweet Charity. I believe that Jasper Johns’ views on reality can be found in the musical too. I think that art mirrors real life throughout the musical, and the reason why art mirrors real life is to show us negative parts of life so that we can improve it. e.g. the hopefully ever after ending, the awful jobs, imperfect relationships, Oscar not being able to get over Charity’s past, etc.

POP ART IN OUR PRODUCTION We are using Pop art as our style for Sweet Charity because it is a very well known art movement that in the 60s and it also give a lot of colour to our set. This art movement doesn’t only correspond with the era of the musical but also with specific scenes that happen in the production e.g. Rhythm of life, Corny Ireland. Pop arts is a very colourful and animated art style and it can relate to the costumes and fashion of the 60s. E.g. Dance hall hostesses wearing colourful dresses. Finally, we are using Pop art in our production for the multiple choice of set and for the freedom of creating a big, satire, colourful and animated set, have less limits on our imagination.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Adriana (no date) The influence of art history on modern design – pop art. Available at: (Accessed: 2 May 2016). Drugs, S. and Rolls, B. (2014) Burger concepts. Available at: (Accessed: 2 May 2016). KFC (1952) Available at: (Accessed: 2 May 2016). Ltd, F.N. (2000) Ed’s easy diner, Mayfair. Available at: (Accessed: 2 May 2016). Pop art - the art of popular culture (2016) Available at: (Accessed: 2 May 2016). Pop art collage (no date) Available at: (Accessed: 2 May 2016). visual-arts-cork (2014) Pop art: History, characteristics. Available at: cork.com/history-of-art/pop-art.htm (Accessed: 2 May 2016).