Modern Art, Pop Art Offer Distinct Choices For Collectors

By Author: Vikram Kumar
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Contemporary art collectors have tastes as distinctive as the difference between vinegar and sugar. Even within movements such as Modern Art and Pop Art there are variations to suit practically any preference.

For example, Modern Art, created in the period between 1860 and 1970, drew upon a variety of traditions. Among these were expressions such as Romanticism with its strong emotions as a source of aesthetic inspiration; Realism and its depictions of everyday events such as a relative's funeral; and Impressionism, with its emphasis on showing light over the passage of time and unusual visual angles. Each of these had an influence on such early Modern Art portrayers as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Georges Seurat.

However, early expressions of Modern Art soon gave way to new expressions in the first years of the 20th century. Henri Matisse and Andre Derain pioneered the movement known as Fauvism, after the French word "les fauves," meaning "the wild beasts." Their art was certainly wild, for it emphasized painting techniques and bold colors over more realistic representations. Fauvism peaked between 1905 ...
... and 1907, but remained a breakthrough movement.

Another movement of this era, Expressionism, draws upon Fauvism in its preference for highly subjective viewpoints, often distorted to produce an emotional cause and effect. In other words, Expressionist artists strove to depict their emotional experience rather than the world's physical reality.

On the other hand Cubism took Modern Art in a totally different direction. This artistic philosophy, originally proposed by Paul Cezanne, decreed that three geometric forms -- cones, spheres and cubes - could be used to depict anything in nature. Cubist art broke up realistic objects and reassembled them according to the artist's vision of their abstracted design. Cubism also is marked by spatial ambiguity as opposed to works with a distinct sense of perspective, so that the object and its background appear to occupy the same space.

The mid-20th century movement known as Pop Art was a complete rejection of all the principles that marked Modern Art. Instead of stylized or individualistic representations, Pop Art asserted that mass-produced commodities were worthy artworks as the subjects of yesteryear. The movement's adherents insisted that popular culture shared equal standing with so-called fine art. In fact, many Pop Art works parody and satirize attitudes and practices of popular culture through mass media techniques and themes.

Pop Art often draws from such commercial art sources as advertising, comic books and everyday objects and cultural icons. For example, Roy Lichtenstein's 1963 painting, "Drowning Girl," is done in comic book style, with a panel in saturated colors and a dialogue balloon. Pop Art stressed this type of popular image and its attendant mechanical means of rendering. The movement is often criticized as kitschy or banal, yet its critics overlook the fact that such parody is a key element, namely commenting both on mass-produced culture and on the acquisitiveness of elitist art collectors.

These few examples of the various sub-movements within Modern Art and Pop Art point out that both artistic philosophies share a common characteristic: a willingness to experiment with subject, form, color and technique to keep art fresh and exciting.

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Pop Art and Modern Art may appeal to vastly different kinds of collectors, but Artboom can help any customer find the artworks that most appeal to their particular tastes.