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Pop Art

POP ART STYLE

Perhaps one of the most influential contemporary art movements, Pop art emerged in the 1950s. In stark contrast to traditional artistic practice, its practitioners drew on imagery from popular culture — comic books, advertising, product packaging and other commercial media — to create original Pop art paintings, prints and sculptures that celebrated ordinary life in the most literal way.

ORIGINS OF POP ART

CHARACTERISTICS OF POP ART 

  • Bold imagery
  • Bright, vivid colors
  • Straightforward concepts
  • Engagement with popular culture 
  • Incorporation of everyday objects from advertisements, cartoons, comic books and other popular mass media

POP ARTISTS TO KNOW

ORIGINAL POP ART ON 1STDIBS

The Pop art movement started in the United Kingdom as a reaction, both positive and critical, to the period’s consumerism. Its goal was to put popular culture on the same level as so-called high culture.

Richard Hamilton’s 1956 collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is widely believed to have kickstarted this unconventional new style.

Pop art works are distinguished by their bold imagery, bright colors and seemingly commonplace subject matter. Practitioners sought to challenge the status quo, breaking with the perceived elitism of the previously dominant Abstract Expressionism and making statements about current events. Other key characteristics of Pop art include appropriation of imagery and techniques from popular and commercial culture; use of different media and formats; repetition in imagery and iconography; incorporation of mundane objects from advertisements, cartoons and other popular media; hard edges; and ironic and witty treatment of subject matter.

Although British artists launched the movement, they were soon overshadowed by their American counterparts. Pop art is perhaps most closely identified with American Pop artist Andy Warhol, whose clever appropriation of motifs and images helped to transform the artistic style into a lifestyle. Most of the best-known American artists associated with Pop art started in commercial art (Warhol made whimsical drawings as a hobby during his early years as a commercial illustrator), a background that helped them in merging high and popular culture.

Roy Lichtenstein was another prominent Pop artist that was active in the United States. Much like Warhol, Lichtenstein drew his subjects from print media, particularly comic strips, producing paintings and sculptures characterized by primary colors, bold outlines and halftone dots, elements appropriated from commercial printing. Recontextualizing a lowbrow image by importing it into a fine-art context was a trademark of his style. Neo-Pop artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami further blurred the line between art and popular culture.

Pop art rose to prominence largely through the work of a handful of men creating works that were unemotional and distanced — in other words, stereotypically masculine. However, there were many important female Pop artists, such as Rosalyn Drexler, whose significant contributions to the movement are recognized today. Best known for her work as a playwright and novelist, Drexler also created paintings and collages embodying Pop art themes and stylistic features.

Read more about the history of Pop art and the style’s famous artists, and browse the collection of original Pop art paintings, prints, photography and other works for sale on 1stDibs.

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Style: Pop Art
"Bella the Buffalo" - Acrylic on Canvas
"Bella the Buffalo" - Acrylic on Canvas

"Bella the Buffalo" - Acrylic on Canvas

By Melinda McLeod

Located in West Hollywood, CA

Melinda has studied life and its movements, developing a remarkably keen artistic technique with her flowing expressionistic style. Growing up in the Midwest she was enamored with n...

Category

2010s Pop Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Quality Time #6 - Original Whimsical Colorful Figurative Still Life Artwork
Quality Time #6 - Original Whimsical Colorful Figurative Still Life Artwork

Quality Time #6 - Original Whimsical Colorful Figurative Still Life Artwork

By Fabio Coruzzi

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Paper, Oil Pastel, Acrylic, Gel Pen, Graphite

OK Then; Everybody Out #24 - Abstract Political Figurative Color Drenched Art
OK Then; Everybody Out #24 - Abstract Political Figurative Color Drenched Art

OK Then; Everybody Out #24 - Abstract Political Figurative Color Drenched Art

By Fabio Coruzzi

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Oil Pastel, Acrylic, Gel Pen, Graphite, Canvas

Felony Money - Original Monopoly Man Figurative Acrylic Pop Artwork by Gary John
Felony Money - Original Monopoly Man Figurative Acrylic Pop Artwork by Gary John

Felony Money - Original Monopoly Man Figurative Acrylic Pop Artwork by Gary John

By Gary John

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Gary John's pop-street artworks have a whimsical, yet exciting and bold quality inspired by classic cartoon and comic book characters. Blending pop sensibilities with a roughened fau...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic, Newsprint

Art Card: Keith Haring - Andy Mouse - New Coke Hand signed by Keith Haring Frame
Art Card: Keith Haring - Andy Mouse - New Coke Hand signed by Keith Haring Frame

Art Card: Keith Haring - Andy Mouse - New Coke Hand signed by Keith Haring Frame

By Keith Haring

Located in New York, NY

Offset lithograph postcard Boldly signed by Keith Haring on the front• The piece is part of Haring's "Andy Mouse" series, which features a character that is a whimsical blend of Mickey Mouse and his friend and mentor, Andy Warhol. By combining these icons with the New Coke...

Category

1980s Pop Art

Materials

Postcard, ABS

All You Need is a Cat
All You Need is a Cat

All You Need is a Cat

Located in Zofingen, AG

All You Need Is a Cat plays with a familiar cultural phrase, transforming it into a quiet emotional statement. In this painting, the cat is not just a character, but a metaphor for ...

Category

2010s Pop Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Lifetime of Adventures - Original Framed Figurative Man & Woman Pop Art Painting
Lifetime of Adventures - Original Framed Figurative Man & Woman Pop Art Painting

Lifetime of Adventures - Original Framed Figurative Man & Woman Pop Art Painting

By Nelson De La Nuez

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Nelson De La Nuez is one of the most sought-after contemporary Pop artists practicing today. His striking, vivid mixed media artwork borrows motifs and messages from the language of ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil Pastel, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Tape Collection Two Framed Pop Art Red and Yellow Color Limited Edition Prints
Tape Collection Two Framed Pop Art Red and Yellow Color Limited Edition Prints

Tape Collection Two Framed Pop Art Red and Yellow Color Limited Edition Prints

By Heidler & Heeps

Located in Cambridge, GB

Two framed pop artworks from the Heidler and Heeps Tape Collection 'Ferric 60 (Tinted Red)' and 'Yellow Tinted Cassette' The Heidler & Heeps collaborations are creative representati...

Category

2010s Pop Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin

David Hockney 'Two Deckchairs, Calvi' 1985 Pop Art Vintage
David Hockney 'Two Deckchairs, Calvi' 1985 Pop Art Vintage

David Hockney 'Two Deckchairs, Calvi' 1985 Pop Art Vintage

By David Hockney

Located in Brooklyn, NY

Exhibition poster created for the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam, showcasing David Hockney’s Two Deckchairs, Calvi. With its bold colors and sunlit charm, this image captures Hockney’s unmistakable style and timeless appeal. Original museum posters...

Category

1980s Pop Art

Materials

Offset

Desert Drama, Original Painting
Desert Drama, Original Painting

Desert Drama, Original Painting

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist John Jaster captures a Southwestern landscape framed by two towering saguaro cacti and a dry creek bed winding through weathered cliffs. Vivid green and ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Acrylic

Venice, Pop Art Screenprint by Mori Shizume
Venice, Pop Art Screenprint by Mori Shizume

Venice, Pop Art Screenprint by Mori Shizume

By Mori Shizume

Located in Long Island City, NY

Venice by Mori Shizume, Japanese (1928–2014) Date: 1979 Screenprint, signed and numbered in pencil Edition of 200 Size: 21.5 in. x 30 in. (54.61 cm x 76.2 cm) Image Size: 15.75 x 27 ...

Category

1970s Pop Art

Materials

Screen

Object in the Mirror, Oil Painting
Object in the Mirror, Oil Painting

Object in the Mirror, Oil Painting

By Keith Thomson

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A vintage sedan cuts through a blazing blue desert sky as the driver glances out the window, caught between curiosity and concern. He knows mirages are common i...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Oil

Mickey's Dreamland - Original Pop Art Painting with Cartoon Character
Mickey's Dreamland - Original Pop Art Painting with Cartoon Character

Mickey's Dreamland - Original Pop Art Painting with Cartoon Character

By Naguy Claude

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Naguy Claude mixes popular culture icons and street art with comic and cartoon characters, as well as famous superheroes, in his original layered mixed media paintings. His artworks ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Spray Paint, Acrylic

YOSHITOMO NARA - WE ARE PUNKS MUG (Large) Design modern pop art urban Japan
YOSHITOMO NARA - WE ARE PUNKS MUG (Large) Design modern pop art urban Japan

YOSHITOMO NARA - WE ARE PUNKS MUG (Large) Design modern pop art urban Japan

By Yoshitomo Nara

Located in Madrid, Madrid

Yoshitomo Nara - We are punks Mug Large Date of creation: 2011 Medium: Porcelain Edition: Open Size: 95 x Φ85 mm (300ml) Condition: Brand new, inside its custom box Description: The big sibling in Yoshitomo Nara's We Are Punks porcelain series, this 300 cc mug features a vampire-fanged girl peering over a wall on its side with the quiet menace of someone who arrived first and has no intention of leaving. "We Are Punks" is printed on the exterior as both a title and a statement of intent. The image derives from Nara's 2011 colour-pencil drawing of the same name, part of a practice where childhood defiance and subcultural energy merge into a visual language recognisable across a room. Made in Hasami ware from Nagasaki Prefecture, the mug is fired, glazed and finished in Japan. Hasami potters developed their craft supplying everyday tableware to the domestic market, which means the porcelain is built to be used, not merely admired. It is microwave and dishwasher safe. The white ground is clean and unglazed on the outside where the illustration sits, giving the print a tactile, almost paper-like quality that feels closer to a drawing than to a mass-produced transfer. At 300 cc it holds enough coffee to start the morning with the same stubborn composure Nara's children have been modelling for over three decades. Pair it with the small mug: the two stack together and, like any well-conceived double act, gain from being seen as a set. That stacking detail is not accidental. Nara has long been interested in objects that nest inside one another. His room-sized installations are built as huts and cabins that shelter smaller works, creating a mise en abyme of intimacy. Two mugs sitting one inside the other carry a faint echo of that idea, scaled down to the kitchen shelf. ABOUT THE ARTIST Yoshitomo Nara (奈良美智, b. 1959, Hirosaki) is one of the most influential Japanese artists working today. Round-headed children with piercing gazes populate his canvases and sculptures, images that have gone well beyond the art world to become a broader cultural phenomenon. Childhood in Aomori: Solitude, Nature, and Radio Waves Nara grew up in Hirosaki, a small city in Aomori Prefecture at the northern tip of Honshū. Both parents worked long hours, leaving young Yoshitomo to fend for himself after school. The Japanese have a word for children like him, kagikko, latchkey kids who come home to an empty house and learn to keep their own company. That early acquaintance with solitude runs through every painting. Look at any of Nara's figures and you will find a self-contained being who meets your eye with a steadiness that could be courage or could just as easily be vulnerability. During those solitary years, Western music reached him through the Far East Network (FEN), the U.S. Armed Forces radio station. Rock, folk, and later punk gave him a way to feel before painting ever did. As a young boy he bought his first record, Suzie Q, and has often said that album covers were his earliest art gallery. Later, he would design covers for Shonen Knife, R.E.M., and Bloodthirsty Butchers, and every exhibition he puts on is accompanied by a playlist of his own making. Education: Aichi and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf After earning a BFA (1985) and MFA (1987) at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nara relocated to Germany to enrol at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the same school that had shaped Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter. Under Neo-Expressionist painter A.R. Penck (1991–1993), he received one piece of advice that stuck: "Paint on the canvas as if you are drawing." Bold, pared-back figures, large rounded heads set against bare backgrounds, began to take shape on his canvases. At the Kunstakademie's annual student show in 1992, visitors saw The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand (1991), a painting that crystallised the tension running through all of Nara's work: an apparently innocent girl holding a tiny knife, a gesture he reads not as aggression but as self-defence against a threatening adult world. Once finished with his studies, Nara settled in Cologne in 1994 and set up in a former cotton mill. Cut off by the language barrier, he turned painting into a conversation with himself, and it was in that solitude that the gaze people remember long after leaving the gallery first appeared. Return to Japan and International Acclaim Twelve years later, Nara came back to Japan. I DON'T MIND, IF YOU FORGET ME. opened at the Yokohama Museum of Art in 2001 and toured five Japanese venues, including Hirosaki. MoMA New York acquired 130 of his drawings around the same time, and the travelling retrospective Nothing Ever Happens (2003–2005) cemented his reputation in the United States. Within the Japanese "New Pop" wave, he shared the stage with artists such as Takashi Murakami, Makoto Aida, and Mariko Mori...

Category

2010s Pop Art

Materials

Porcelain

Fragrance in Illusion: Chanel No. 3 Reinvented - Textural Abstract 3D Painting
Fragrance in Illusion: Chanel No. 3 Reinvented - Textural Abstract 3D Painting

Fragrance in Illusion: Chanel No. 3 Reinvented - Textural Abstract 3D Painting

By Virginie Schroeder

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Playing with the interaction between positive and negative space, strong colors on neutral backgrounds, Canadian artist Virginie Schroeder creates pop art portraits and iconic pop cu...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Multicolor 3D Floral-Inspired Wall Sculpture Mosaic of Spherical Floral Forms
Multicolor 3D Floral-Inspired Wall Sculpture Mosaic of Spherical Floral Forms

Multicolor 3D Floral-Inspired Wall Sculpture Mosaic of Spherical Floral Forms

By Elizabeth Art Candy

Located in FISTERRA, ES

This square wall-mounted sculpture features a dense surface of hand-molded clay spheres in assorted sizes and colors, arranged into compact floral-like clusters. Flower Bubbles (202...

Category

2010s Pop Art

Materials

Clay, Spray Paint, Board

"Damien Hirst (3)", Painting on cut aluminium, Pop Kinetic art, 60 x 60 cm
"Damien Hirst (3)", Painting on cut aluminium, Pop Kinetic art, 60 x 60 cm

"Damien Hirst (3)", Painting on cut aluminium, Pop Kinetic art, 60 x 60 cm

Located in Carballo, ES

The root of Guedes's work is located in the MADÍ movement, of Argentine origin and little repercussion in Spain, which attaches great importance to the tensions that are established ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

Pop Art art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Pop art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, red, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Jack Mitchell, Andy Warhol, Peter Max, and Heidler & Heeps. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Pop Art, so small editions measuring 0.4 inches across are also available.