Pop Art

Our readings this week went through the development of what would become universally dubbed 'pop art'. We also had a re-reading of the Situationist chapter.

The main concept to be aware of for pop art in these contexts is simulacra:

the copy without an original.


Things to look up:

1) constructivism
2) retro-futurism
3) take another look at 'capital realism' in relation to the german artists Polke, Richter and Baselitz.
4) populism
5) the role of an 'audience', we talked last week about 'what is art?', 'what is sculpture?', blah blah blah, whatever...
think about this, 'who is the audience?', 'who was this made for?', or 'is this for everyone, forever in all places?' thiink about the idea that art is universal, that it's role and appeal actually can, should or be forever...is good work good work forever? Duchamp claimed that the function of museums was to house all of our mediocre things. Think about that in relation to his Etant Donnes, the famous secret 'final piece' he made.

A duality to consider, in a 'structuralist' mode, remember that structuralism uses binaries to describe things and theories:

1) handmade/readymade

This will go back to our question of what is a sculpture. Look at Rauschenberg and Johns, and the way they integrate the handmade and the readymade.

If you did some of the outside readings, ask yourself these questions in relation to Pop art.

what is camp?
what is kitsch?
what is pop?
what is populist?

Everything becomes an issue of taste, and we are constantly referring back to Duchamp and his fart jokes.

My dear little witches and wizards, will this elongated fart joke ever get old?

Yours,

Nathan Shafier (Shafier is my magician name, like David Blaine)


As extra credit, if anyone is interested. A great writer, who is not being discussed with these texts is Marshall McLuhan:

be ready to talk about 'The Mechanical Bride', 'The Gutenberg Galaxy' and 'The Medium is the Message'.