Pop and Op Art

A two part look at the development of Pop Art in both the United States and in Europe. The first program traces the work of major Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, George Segal and Robert Rauschenberg with a discussion of the subjects, styles and themes common to Pop Art and its manifestations in painting, photography, three dimensional installations and staged “happenings”. The boundary between commercial art and Pop Art is also discussed with particular reference to the intentions behind the work where familiar objects are placed out of context, though not necessarily for the purposes of social comment. The second part details European Pop Art and the stronger critique engaged in both in reference to American art and the political contexts within which they were produced. Artists such as Christo and Marciel Raysse are discussed in detail, with attention to their aims of creating a new synthetic reality to evoke impermanence and disorder and neutralise and deglamourise commercial, mechanical and iconic imagery. This second program also looks at Optical art, detailing its focus on geometrical patterns, flat colours and optical illusions, both in terms of its history and in terms of the work of modern artists such as Joseph Albers and Bridgette Riley.