Born out of 1950s Britain and the United States, Pop Art challenged the traditions of fine art with imagery from popular culture. Characterized by the ironic emphasis of the banal used by artists to poke fun at the elitist culture of art, when it came to figurative pop art it was anything but banal. Andy Warhol's 1962 work, The Marilyn Diptych, depicted an icon, recognized by the masses and the ultimate reaction to the figurative in abstract expressionism. Though figurative art often coincides with the human form, the recognizable was the driving subject behind what would become Pop Art. The resulting works portrayed well-known figures throughout the 1960s. By coinciding with the globalization of pop music and youth culture, it is unsurprising that the artists of today resonate with this movement. In our own selection of works you will find Max Rovira, who offers nostalgia in his depictions of the figure and Anne Rosenblatt who depicts singers, artists and models from popular culture. The rendering of such recognizable figures then in turn feeds into the growth of the greater theme of figurative Pop Art with mass-media, mass-culture and mass-production of their image. Thus cementing the importance of the figurative in Pop Art.
