Surrealism and Pop Art are both important artistic movements of the twentieth century. Pop Art experienced influences from other art styles. That’s why there are quite a few similarities between Pop Art and Cubism, and Pop Art and Dadaism. So what qualifies as Pop Art and what as Surrealism Art? Read on to find out more about the differences between Surrealism and Pop Art in this post!
What's the difference between surrealism and pop art?
Surrealism and Pop Art are both art movements that originated in the 20th century and are still popular today. Evolving during the same time, they influenced each other. Still, there are major differences between Surrealism Art and Pop Art.
Broadly speaking, Pop Art showcases things that are relevant to popular culture. That’s why many Pop Art works depict celebrities or other subjects of every-day life. One of the most famous examples is the four-color piece of Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe.
Surrealism, on the other hand, is basically skewed reality. Surrealist artworks show things from real life, but fuse them into a context that would never exist or be possible in the real world. Surrealist artists take inspiration in dreams and fantasies and then let their subconscious express itself freely.
What qualifies as pop art?
Surrealism and Pop Art are two art styles that have similar characteristics because they both originated in the 50’s and 60’s.
Pop Art is the ‘art of popular culture’. It originated out of a series of other artistic movements in the 19th and 20th century. It includes different styles of painting and sculpture from several countries, all having a bold and self-assertive character that challenged the artistic establishment.
Many of the key features of Pop Art jelled in the consume-driven post-war era after WW2. This coincided with the globalization of pop music and youth culture.
The Pop Art movement developed in the UK and the US simultaneously. To describe this new type of art, the term ‘pop’ was first coined in 1954, by the British art critic Lawrence Alloway.
Two of the most famous British Pop Artists were Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi.
In the United States, Pop Art evolved mainly as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism, with the pioneers being Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
Other iconic artists of the Pop Art movement are:
- Andy Warhol
- Claes Oldenburg
- David Hockney
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Tom Wesselmann
Characteristics of Pop Art
Generally speacking, Pop Art was a revolt against the elitism of the art establishment that considered popular culture to be ‘bad taste’ and only recognized the avant-garde as ‘real’ art.
Related: → What Is The Difference Between Lowbrow And Highbrow?
The Pop Artists believed that everyone was part of art and, conversely, that art was for everyone, just because it’s part of the culture. By depicting everyday items or faces of celebrities, Pop Art went against common norms and became very relatable to people.
Color is one of the most prominent characteristics in Pop Art. Previously, only few art styles made use of such blatant color combinations as you can see them in Pop artworks.
The vibrancy of a Pop-Art piece is more likely to capture the viewer’s attention. That made it perfect for depicting popular culture. Very soon, Pop Art became widespread for use in comic books, advertising, and art prints.
But the idea of Pop Art is even more basic. Its socio-cultural goal was to maintain the economic structures of capitalism, while reconciling the segmented notions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture and art.
Similarities between Pop Art And Dada
Dada started out in Europe during World War I as an anti-war and anti-logic movement.
The Dadaists felt that many of the issues that had led to WW1 were a result of the logic and rational thinking of capitalism. They rejected the established religious and moral principles. Instead, they propagated irrational theories, while still holding concrete political views. In fact, many Dadaists identified with the far-left.
A main characteristic of the Dada movement was to challenge society’s preconceived notions of art. Key figures in the New York Dada scene, such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, started to question the basis of ‘museum art’.
This is how Dadaism earned its reputation of being an ‘anti-art’ movement; its opponents claimed that it didn’t show any dedication to beauty or aesthetics.
This is the similarity between Pop Art and Dada: just like Dada, Pop Art rejected the elitism of conventional ‘high’ art and culture.
However, one of the differences between Pop Art and Dada is that Pop Art was supportive of capitalism. As opposed to Pop Artists, Dadaists did not accept capitalist concepts.
What is surrealism art?
Subsequent to Dadaism, Surrealism started out in Europe in the 1920’s and is one of the movements that shaped Pop Art.
Despite its Dadaist influences, Surrealism wasn’t as harsh as Dadaism and more conventionally ‘artistic’ in nature. It lacked the more radical political ideas of the Dadaists and preserved a certain light-heartedness, which would later be seen in Pop Art.
Evolving in the heart of Paris, Surrealism was first to be found in poetry and writings.
Known as the ‘Pope of Surrealism’, French poet André Breton first outlined the philosophy of Surrealism in his ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ of 1924.
His creative writing is characterized by surrealist techniques such as ‘automatic’ writing. He used the term ‘Surrealism’ to refer to the amalgamation of the conscious and subconscious into a new ‘absolute reality’, which he described as the ‘fusion of elements of fantasy with elements of the modern world to form a kind of superior reality’.
Soon, Surrealism spread over all forms of art, including visual arts, such as painting and drawing.
Iconic artists of the Surrealism movement are:
- Max Ernst
- Man Ray
- René Magritte
- Salvador Dalí
What are two characteristics of Surrealism Art?
One of the main characteristics of the Surrealist movement was to give free expression to the subconscious mind. The Surrealists took inspiration from dreams and fantasies, depicting bizarre scenes and imagery.
The second important characteristic of Surrealism is the ‘automaticity’ that recurs in all surreal art production. All art is created without any contemplation.
Initiated by Breton’s ‘automatic’ writing, visual Surrealist would practice ‘automatic’ painting and drawing.
Similarities between pop art and cubism
The Cubism movement evolved in Paris in the early 1900’s. Along with Pop Art, it’s one of the most famous artistic movements of the twentieth century. French art critic Louis Vauxcelles first came up with the name in 1908.
Even though both movements originated around the same time in Europe, there are only few similarities between Pop Art and Cubism. The most important analogy is probably that they both intended to go against social norms.
Created predominantly by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the objective of Cubism was to take mainstream art in another direction.
Cubism was a reaction against traditional modes of representation and impressionist concerns with light and color. It was inspired by the later work of French painter Paul Cézanne and by African art, in particular African sculpture.
However, another main goal of Cubism was to differ from any other artistic style. Understandably, there are only few resemblances with other movements.
The difference between Pop Art and Cubism lies in the color choices, shapes, and types of lines used. While Pop Art features bright, bold colors, and curved lines, Cubism uses a dull, muted color palette, and sharp, angled lines.
The main idea of Cubism was not to use a particularly attention-grabbing color scheme.
The monochromatic colors helped create rather obscure and fragmented images that were intended to catch viewers off guard and cause confusion. The odd shapes left observers to wonder what the image is portraying and to look more into the internal meaning of the piece.
Iconic artists of the Cubism movement are:
- Ben Nicholson
- Georges Braque
- Juan Gris
- Pablo Picasso
- Stuart Davis
What is pop surrealism?
Pop Surrealism came about around the late 70’s to early 80’s and is a fusion of Pop Art and Surrealism.
It arose from an underground movement starting around Los Angeles, California, in the late 1970’s.
Pop Surrealism has its roots in comix, punk music, and the hot-rod cultures of the street and is also known as ‘Lowbrow Art’.
The term ‘Pop Surrealism’ was first coined by the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in 1998 for its exhibit of the same name.
As a baseline, Pop Surrealist artworks tend to display features of both Pop Art and Surrealism.
Pop Surreal art tends to use the bright colors of Pop Art and combines them with the nonsensical physics of Surrealism. This is particularly apparent in the big eyes and heads of pop surreal characters.
→ Learn more about Pop Surrealism here.
Iconic artists of the Pop Surrealism movement are:
- Audrey Kawasaki
- Mark Ryden
- Robert Williams
- Tara McPherson
(All images displayed in this post are copyright to their respective owners and solely used for educational purposes.)
I hope you enjoyed this post about the differences between Surrealism and Pop Art and were able to learn something from it. If so, please don’t forget to share with other artists! Be well and see you soon, Angie 🌟
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