Pop Art or A Historyof Now by Andy MacKay

By Andy MacKay 10th March 2021 6pm 

“Emerging in 1950s London, popular art – or “Pop Art” as it quickly became known – appeared at a unique historical moment. Coming of age during a new and political convergence of industry, technology, advertising and art, Pop artists were celebrities. As playful and inventive exemplars of both the avant-garde and the mainstream, they both shaped and reflected postwar popular culture - not without controversy. With a visually arresting and diverse new vernacular realism they employed humour, irony and irreverence to explore the conflicted construction of ‘reality’. Describing the intersection of art, business and identity politics, theirs was the first international Postmodern movement - defining the world in which we still live. Pop Art remains the most recognisable of twentieth century art movements because it's a form of cultural populism that we’re still in love with: everything is iconic, everyone's a celebrity. To understand Pop Art is really to understand now”. Andy MacKay