pop art

or Pop Art

noun

1. an art movement that began in the U.S. in the 1950s and reached its peak of activity in the 1960s, chose as its subject matter the anonymous, everyday, standardized, and banal iconography in American life, as comic strips, billboards, commercial products, and celebrity images, and dealt with them typically in such forms as outsize commercially smooth paintings, mechanically reproduced silkscreens, large-scale facsimiles, and soft sculptures.

pop art

noun

1. a movement in modern art that imitates the methods, styles, and themes of popular culture and mass media, such as comic strips, advertising, and science fiction

pop art

1. Art that uses elements of popular culture, such as magazines, movies, popular music, and even bottles and cans. ( See also Andy Warhol .)

Other Words From

• pop artist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pop art¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Today, Benglis’s naked portrait is understood as a key work not just in her career, but also in the discourse of feminism, sexuality, gender, pop art and larger debates about the purpose and power of overt provocation.

From Washington Post

Now chef Dominique Ansel has created a Pop Art-themed ice cream sundae on sale for one day only in East Hampton.

From The Daily Beast

Ditto on the East Coast, with Robert Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, as part of his documentary of Pop Art.

From The Daily Beast

A new exhibition in London showcases the connection between Pop Art and design.

From The Daily Beast

Designers like Jones transformed female images from Pop Art into stylized and sexy sculptural furnishings.

From The Daily Beast

Pop Art exploded onto the scene as an unexpected post-war party—a daring distraction from the anxieties of an age of austerity.

From The Daily Beast