MANALILI : WHAT IS NEO-POP ART?

In the 1980s there was a renewed interest in the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and
contemporaries. Warhol died in 1987, but he had long before inspired a while
generation of new artists. It should be noted that Neo-Pop Art is not really a new art
movement, but rather an evolution of the old Pop Art movement.

Neo-Pop Art consists of a revised form of Pop Art adapted from its forefathers, a rebirth
of recognizable objects and celebrities from popular culture with icons and symbols of
the present times. Excellent examples are Katharina Fritsch's 1993 sculpture "Rat-King"
and Jeff Koon's 1988 sculpture: "Michael Jackson and Bubbles".

Neo-Pop Art tends to criticize and evaluate Western Culture, values, relationships, and
interactions, frequently poking fun at celebrities and openly embraces ideas that are
provocative and controversial.
What we call Neo-Pop Art is certainly not a movement but a convenient way of
classifying this new list of diverse artists. The work of these artists also draws inspiration
from Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Photorealism, Installation/Performance Art and more.
Neo-Pop, or Post-Pop, is a broad term that refers to a style that has been influenced by
Pop Art. The first wave of Neo-Pop Art emerged in the 1980’s as a reaction to the
Minimalism and Conceptualism of the 1970’s. Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring,
Kenny Scharf and Takashi Murakami are artists who worked in a Neo-Pop style during
this period, borrowing subjects from everyday life and elevating them to “high art”. 
RAYMART: TAKASHI MURAKAMI
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media as
well as commercial and is known for blurring the line between high and low
arts. Takashi Murakami's astronomical rise to fame in the contemporary art world has
been met with equal parts celebration and criticism. Murakami skillfully obliterates any
line between commodities and high art by combining Japanese pop culture references
with the country's rich cultural tradition.
Works:
RAYMART: 727

Mr. DOB is derived from the Japanese slang phrase "dobozite," which roughly
translates to "why?" The insane smile of Mr. DOB may be taken as Murakami's laughing
posture towards the art world, as well as the West. The title, 727, is a tribute to the
Boeing American jets that passed over his boyhood home on their way to military sites
in the United States. In this way, the title alludes to the American presence in postwar
Japan, which Murakami is anxious to both investigate and condemn in his work.
RAYMART: Hiropon

Hiropon is a one of Murakami's anime-inspired characters that also include a

masturbating sculpture of a boy named My Lonesome Cowboy. Murakami explains
these sculptures simply as a celebration of his own love for anime during teen years, "I
became an otaku when I was in high school and absorbed many different things
from anime like its erotic and fantasy elements... that very process resulted in this
work."
MONTA: JEFF KOONS
Is a well-known American artist known for his work dealing with popular culture as well
as his sculptures representing ordinary items, such as balloon animals made of
stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. In doing so, he starts a conversation on the
significance of material goods in our lives and society's overall materialism. Many of his
pieces appear to be inexpensive, yet they are not, a cunning inversion of economic logic
that has led to his commercial success.
Works:
MONTA: Balloon Monkey
 A compelling piece, both in terms of color and subject matter, a whimsical depiction of
a monkey in its most basic form. Koons has always been interested by universally
appealing subject matter, and the monkey has appeared as a recurring element in his
work. This sculpture replicates the form of twisted balloons to reduce the monkey to its
simplest form, celebrating the joy and innocence of childhood. The dazzling reflective
orange enhances the playfulness of the piece, while recalling traditional values of
success, happiness and creativity. This powerful work conveys the cheerful spirit and
appeal of universally loved images that Koons uses to engage the senses and intellect
of viewers, a style for which he has earned international acclaim.

MONTA: Gazing Balls series

Jeff Koons, a well-known artist known for his creations of pop culture subject matter,
created the Gazing Ball Series as a tribute to the classics and their relationship with
society today. His collection consists of 35 artworks, all of which have been repainted to
resemble known paintings, with the addition of a metal blue gazing ball placed in the
lower center. Koons picked the gazing ball as a technique to integrate 2-D and 3-D
elements, a skill he learned from ancient painting. He draws power from his capacity to
reflect almost 360 degrees to the observer, showing them exactly what is around them.
He refers to it as a GPS system for the brain and claims that the human mind is
constantly secreting chemicals in order to figure out where it is in the cosmos.
ABI: DAMIEN HIRST
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of
the Young British Artists who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. A
successful and controversial artist, Damien Hirst emerged as a leading figure in the
Young British Artists movement in the late 1980s and 1990s. His works, which include
dead animal displays and spin-art paintings, have sold for exceptionally high prices.
Hirst is one of the wealthiest artists living today.

Works:
ABI: The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living
The work of Damien Hirst was initially shown in 1992 as part of the Young British Artists
exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in north London. The piece is considered a “natural
history” work. It consists of a once-living, 13-foot-long tiger shark suspended in a tank of
formaldehyde. The sculpture weighs upwards of 23 tons, With this art piece Hirst is
challenging us to comprehend death. He’s telling us we can’t fathom the eternal
slumber known as “death,” even though we are face-to-face with a dead animal. As with
all art, the meaning behind the work can be dissected and pulled apart by the viewer,
and this piece conjures up endless ideas about the nature of death. As the title
suggests, we as living beings cannot truly grasp the meaning of death. And so the title
can mean as much, if not more, than the sculpture itself.

ABI: With Dead Head

The artist, with a huge grin on his face, poses next to a severed head in a morgue. Hirst
selected the photograph and enlarged it in 1991 for one of his early solo shows, though
it had been taken several years earlier.
This early work, which reflects his interest in the link between life and death, is brutal,
sarcastic, and frightening, reflecting the mixed sentiments of dread and curiosity that
many people have when confronted with the physical aspects of death.
RAYMART: KEITH HARING
Keith Allen Haring was an American pop artist who came from the 1980s New York City graffiti
scene. "A widely known visual language" has emerged from his animated visuals. He drew on
the techniques and locales of street-based art such as graffiti and murals, employed bright and
artificial colors, and kept imagery accessible in order to grab the eyes and minds of viewers and
get them both to enjoy themselves and to engage with important concerns. 

Works:

RAYMART: Untitled
Visually, the image is classic Haring in its flat, two-dimensional surface, cartoon-like
simplicity and the use of vibrant, saturated colors. He often outlined his characters and
scenes with thick black lines reminiscent of many earlier modern artists, as well as from
the Pop art movement, in addition to Haring's contemporaries the 1980s New York City
graffiti artists. This dazzling heart-love subject, one of his early works, will appear in
many of his paintings and sketches over the remainder of his career. In compared to
Haring's later sexually graphic works, this innocent yet contentious image of two guys in
love is modest, yet the bravery of showing homosexual love at this moment in time was
already a big statement and a notable success in the greater cultural sphere.

RAYMART: Free South Africa

Free South Africa was a political response to the still-existing apartheid circumstances
in South Africa. To reflect the irony of a post-colonial age in which a white minority
continued to oppress the majority native black people, the black figure is purposefully
considerably larger than the white figure. The Free South Africa series is an example of how
Keith Haring's used his playful figurative drawings to tackle social injustices around the world,
notably racism and apartheid in South Africa. He was an outspoken supporter of the LGBT
community, particularly those living with HIV/AIDS, and he opposed racism, unfairness, and
social injustices. As a result, Haring found himself joining the international anti-apartheid
campaign against the South African governments harsh and racially based rule. Popular protest
poster campaigns by artists such as Haring, using accessible images that lent themselves to
circulation in posters, t-shirts and postcards. Combined with world-wide public pressure from
celebrities, politicians, and citizens, to raise awareness and influence change in South Africa.

RJ: KENNY SCHARF

An American painter known for his participation in New York City's interdisciplinary East
Village art scene during the 1980s, Alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring,
Scharf's do-it-yourself practice spanned painting, sculpture, fashion, video, performance
art, and street art. Like many kids growing up amongst Pop Art's cultural explosion in
the 1960s, Kenny Scharf was heavily influenced by the images of popular and
commercial culture that infused and informed American collective consciousness. But
unlike most kids, Scharf's obsessions would extend beyond cutting out photos from
magazines to pin on his bedroom wall. Instead, he gleefully found expression on the
streets, where, with spray paint can in hand, he could share his distinctive, Day-Glo,
psychedelic illustrations with the people.
RJ: Sloppy
Scharf's work frequently incorporates aliens and vintage cartoon figures in post-
apocalyptic scenarios. Scharf's expressive figures and vivid color palettes break through
any scary themes. Scharf’s subjects range from recognizable characters like Judy
Jetson to amorphous blobs that look straight out of a lava lamp. He describes his
figures as mirrors of the human experience saying, “These are a lot about relationships
and how people can be together, coexisting, but very different. There’s a lot of
metaphors you can make up for these pieces. They all change.” Scharf’s abstract and
futuristic scenes resemble a world closer to a science fiction novel than the one we
know today. While he brings the viewer farther from Earth, there’s an obscure familiarity
in the faces and worlds he creates.
RJ: The Groovenians
The first television pilot created by Kenny Scharf, a surrealist painter from Brooklyn,
New York. The art, animation, and concepts were the result of his long work experience
as part of painting pop culture in a science fictional setting; Scharf drew inspiration from
Hanna-Barbera's animated sitcom The Jetsons. Scharf is also known for welcoming
collaborations with popular culture and merchandising opportunities. He designed the
cover art for the 1986 B-52's album Bouncing Off the Satellites and created the 2002
pilot for The Groovenians for Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. The Groovenians is a
computer-animated pilot produced by Cartoon Network Studios and created by Kenny
Scharf. On November 10, 2002, it debuted on Cartoon Network's late night
programming block Adult Swim, although it was also re-aired on the network itself on
February 21, 2003, during the block "Cartoon Cartoons Fridays."