My Pop Art offers distinctive and fun gifts based on Pop Art. And while many of us roughly know what Pop Art is (”Andy Warhol invented it, right?”), most of us don’t know that it consists of an entire movement that has spanned for decade upon decade. This Valentine’s Day, give gifts that have a powerful history within our culture.

So what is Pop Art? Here’s one definition:

Pop Art in Britain refers to a group of artists who began appearing on the scene in the mid-1950s. This identity was formed around The Independent Group, an intellectual circle consisting of the painters Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton, the architectural partnership of Alison and Peter Smithson, and the art critic Lawrence Alloway. In its theoretical explorations, The Independent Group focused on a theoretical exploration of technology, hence the recurring references to science-fiction in British Pop Art.

As you can, Pop Art wasn’t just about Andy Warhol. Its roots reach back to Britain in the 1950’s. Then it “landed” in America:

In general terms, it emerged from the work of Robert Rauschenberg and, chiefly, Jasper Johns, and is characterized by an interest in ordinary objects, irony, and a faith in the potency of images. American Pop Art has its home specifically in New York, where at the outset artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol exhibited, then James Rosenquist, George Segal and Tom Wesselman.

Andy Warhol wasn’t mentioned until considerably later in the story. Perhaps Warhol’s art gets the most notice because of his celebrityhood. Most artists don’t know how to “play the scene” as well as Warhol did. He become intertwined with his artwork, ultimately leading him to be the artwork, to some extent. Smart man!