History of Art Project - Pop Culture

TEKO jANUARY 13

GROUP 8 POP CULTURE/ MASS CONSUMPTION PERIOD: 1960’S TO 1970’S

The “60’s” can be interpreted in a cultural term meaning the inter-related mixture of social, political and economic vibes spanning from the early sixties to mid 70’s. It can also be identified as a radical, reformist era. In Africa, 32 countries gained their independency, rigid group mentality gave way for greater individual freedom and the hippie movementarose.

France, Germany and even the US saw their history's most leftist times in the 60's. Kennedy pushed for social reforms and got assassinated for that.

Vietnam War became the first televised slaughter.

With the help of the new technologies the mass became more informed and organized, bringing the Vietnam war into everybody's living rooms and inspiring the loving pacifist hippie movement - young people had stuff to say and the courage to fight for it.

Black Panther movement rose, defending the rights of the oppressed. . Other sociological issues fueled the growth of larger counterculture movement in Western Europe (Red Army Faction) and in Japan (Zengakuren) - all of the groups were not satisfied with post-industrialist capitalist economies

Italy got its leftist government in 1962. In 1964 the British Labor party gained power. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the construction of Berlin Wall both gave their dark, political violence infused label to the decade.

. Authors and artists like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Marianne Moore and Maya Angelou among others painted a grim, hallucinogenic induced picture criticizing the rising consumerism of the American Dream.

Counterculture rose in Greenwich Village (New York) and its beatnik generation played a big role in shaping the young minds of 60's and 70's.

The 70's were a time of change in terms of progressing global economy, although several industrial countries suffered some setbacks due to an oil crisis, which ignited the trend of replacing Keynesian economic theory with the more modern neoliberal practices.

Tom Wolfe defined the 70's as the "me decade", describing the rise of hyper individualism in the light of post-war blooming economy in contrast to the more communitarianism ways of 60's. The middle class replaced the proletariat, self-determination and prosperity replaced communal New Deal politics.

Greenwich Village and its beatniks promoted a recovery of the self through mental liberation and almost spiritual drug usage in contrast to the consumerist, middle-classy and Christian atmosphere of the "fascist" America.

After the death of Mao Zedong, China started its market liberation and steady rise towards the global economic top. Japanese economy also bloomed, taking over a lot of production happening in the struggling West Germany.

design philosophy

The desire was to bring back the ‘real world’. Artists’ detachment enabled them to address everything they saw and completely submitting themselves to it.

Pop cultures’ requirement is to be enjoyed by the masses, recognizable, retroactive (extension of the things to the past).

There is nerve and freedom, the nonchalant ability to do things never previously thought of.

language of form

During this period we find different moves in fashion from rockabillies, mods, hippies to punks. It was a short but intense period of time where different cultures affect fashion in many ways, creating trends that differ one from others.

The designs of this period had organic forms, simple shapes, often adorned with printed graphics. They often were inspired by technology (printing techniques: silkscreen) and mass media communication

form - fashion

70’s and hippies: bottom-bell pants, loose shirts, deep v-necks, jumpsuits, long dresses and skirts, fur coats and scarfs, floppy hats, boots, strappy sandals, big round and square sunglasses.

Punks: tight broken jeans, leather jackets, shirts tided up around the hips, broken tights, clips, taches, arms warmers.

Rockabillies: button-up shirts with rolled up sleeves, tight jeans, stilettos, black leather jackets, halter dresses with pleated skirts.

Mods: stiff A-line dresses with patch pockets, miniskirts, hot pants, A-line trenches with belts, flats, kitten heels, and pilgrim shoes.

70's and hippies: black, chocolate, navy blue, rust brown, yellow, orange, bottle green, mustard and different shades of purple.

Mods: black and white, complementary colors, bold strong colors, fuchsia, orange, green.

color - fashion

Rockabillies: white, black, bold red, pastel colors, silver.

Punks: black, white, military green, grey, bubblegum pink, washed-blue (denim).

materials- fashion 70's and hippies: corduroy, denim, silk, knit, fur, lurex, cotton, velvet, wool.

Punks: denim, leather, metal (detail), cotton, knit.

Rockabillies: cotton, knit, leather, metal (details), denim

Mods: PVC, glass, plastic, and metal. Artificial fabrics: crimplene (from polyester), nylons.

function- fashion

Mods: they wanted to look like dolls, with very long legs, bold big eyes with fake eye lashes. They wanted to create a fashion style only for a rebellious youth.

Punks: getting their looks from old broken military clothes and second-hand stores. They would customize them and give them that edgy look with taches, pins, cuts out. Their style was rebelling against the society in England, they wanted to scare and be respected.

70's and hippies: showing a relaxed, calm and peaceful look. The colors and the textures tried to represent the love for the earth and the nature.

Rockabillies: achieving that 50's rock look. Sensual women with tight clothes showing off the curves of their bodies. The looks are Pin-up with bold red lips, and cat eye-liner.

important persons

POLITICAL/ SOCIAL

Marthin Luther King

John F. Kennedy

bob Dylan

Andy Warhol

beatles

sex pistols

FASHION

MUSIC

Jackie Kennedy

vivienne Westwood

audrey hepburn

Twiggy

ARTS

The architects of this period questioned the role of an architect and architecture in society. They looked up for pop culture for guidance.

architecture

Archigram was a group of English architects in the 60’s. They combined social changes and technology in their projects that would be able to follow the contemporary life.

They would use media and technology in their projects inspired by comics and they were all designed for the mass.

They would present their work through mass media communication (magazines). (the media communication) – magazines , and the architecture that came from the comics.

design

Later pop art flourished in America, where commercial culture expanded and became symbol of American prosperity, major pop art objects.

Pop art (called from the popular art) originated in England. This style was influenced by American life, which in English seemed like paradise.

The idea is that both are the products of the age of pop, a time when artists like Warhol found beauty in the mass-produced objects and imagery of daily life, and when designers like the Eameses used new technologies to make those objects and images beautiful.

It was a time for obliterating hierarchies, of high and low art, oil paint and petrochemicals, artists and designers.

The principle of pop art is superficiality. Art should be readily understandable to all, popular, one-day, free, witty, sexy and charming, in addition to cheap, mass- produced and making a big business.

Fashion

Fashion in this period was very simple and innovative. In the 60’s the A-line shape was usually used. Short A-line dresses with a polo neck under or without it.

They would also wear thes dresses with matching tights or complementary colorful tights. These dresses sometimes would come with patch pockets. Coats were made out of PVC, sheepskin, suede and leather. They would have this small trench look with also a A line pattern and they were worn with a belt around the waist.

Mary Quant invented the miniskirt, becoming the most representative designer of the 60's.

Mini skirts were combined with flat shoes, kitten heels and pilgrim shoes (this was because a mod girl would love to go party and listen to their favorite music groups so she could dance all night long.

conclusion and reflections

“Pop” arose from a confluence of cultural, economic and social conditions after a period of pronounced austerity during and immediately after the Second World War, and then replicated itself exponential throughout the influence of the artists or a group of artists.

The new generation of young people rose in the 60s, the post-war baby boom. A powerful desire of people to change: consumption, dreams, love, public performance, art (bring art on the streets) and life (search for sexual freedom),

the distinction between elitists and mass-produced goods to be eliminated. These ideas travelled through concerts, recordings on vinyl, radio stations, TVs, magazines, posters.

Mass-communicative technologies made it global and more visual, touchable.Photographers, fashion designers, graphic artists, comic-strip writers, architects, designers, musicians and writers set out the terms of a new way of life.

The concentration was on mass produced objects, more than on the human figure (artists didn’t want to be labeled to their work – a sign of resistance from all artists to being categorized).

Also, landscapes and cityscapes made only rare appearances. The environment was treated as a construction imposed by people on to nature.

Pop/Mass Culture Art claims to be the central creative area of the visual art in our time - the idea of communicating on a vast scale and making artists more populist, sharing cultures and getting people together.

group menbers Druvis Kurssis – 207004@VIAUC.DK Henri Juhani Pohjanhovi – 207292@ VIAUC.DK Kamile Baranauskaite – 206996@VIAUC.DK Krista Miltiņa – 206984@VIAUC.DK Maria Ramos Orche – 206999@VIAUC.DK Tatiana Cecilia G. C. de Oliveira – 206998@VIAUC.DK Valentina Hau Valeanu – 207276@VIAUC.DK

sources Books: •David Alan Mellor and Lauren Gervereau with the collaboration of Sarah Wilson and Laurence Bertrand Dorleac. ISBN 085667 4672, The Sixties: Britain and France, 1962-1973 – The Utopian Year.

•Eric Shanes, The Pop Art Tradition (Temporis Collection). Edition Parkstone Press 2006 •Livingstone Marco, Pop Art: A Continuing History •Sarah Kennedy, Vintage Style – Iconic fashion looks and how to get them, Carlton 2011 •Shanes Eric, The Pop Art Tradition: Responding to Mass-Culture Websites: •http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_1960s.shtml •http://www.vogue.com.au/blogs/spy+style/pop+tastic+fashion,2148 •http://www.wikipedia.org/ •http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/pop-art.htm#aims •http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html •http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_britain/70s/70s_fashion.html •http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~mwaltos/lis506/project/1960s/fashion.html •http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture_of_the_1960s •http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHTe4wpZqE •http://www.historynet.com/pop-culture-history-from-ancient-times-to-today.htm •http://www.slideshare.net/ekilkelly/youth-sub-culture •http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/21/pop-art-is-alive-classics-andmodern-artworks/ •http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/20/pop-art-design-barbican-review

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