Post 8 - ART HISTORY Corine Etienne

Art Movement I Feel Most Akin To: Pop Art (1950s–1970s)

Out of all the art movements I’ve explored, I feel most connected to Pop Art not just aesthetically, but also in its approach to culture, media, and accessibility. Artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and later Takashi Murakami (who blends Pop Art with Superflat and Japanese cultural motifs) inspire how I merge high and low culture in my own illustration and animation work.

Pop Art took the everyday comic strips, advertisements, celebrity culture and transformed it into something vivid, ironic, and sometimes critical. I relate to that impulse to elevate the ordinary and question the boundaries between "fine art" and "popular culture."

Why It Moves Me:

Pop Art was born in a time of mass media explosion, consumerism, and post-war identity crises. Similarly, today’s visual landscape—social media, memes, digital overload—demands a response. My work, like the Pop Artists before me, tries to reflect and remix that visual noise into something that captures attention but also holds meaning

Visual Comparison:

Roy Lichtenstein’s “Whaam!” (1963)  

My Work:

In my work, I often use bold lines, bright color blocks, and stylized figures—much like Lichtenstein’s comic book-inspired compositions. But while his work commented on war and mass production, I focus more on identity, cultural hybridity, and mood. There’s still that layer of stylized drama and contrast, just rooted in a different generation.

Conclusion:

Pop Art resonates with me because it’s playful, critical, and deeply tied to the world around it. It gives me a framework to work through visual storytelling in a way that’s both accessible and layered. By referencing Pop Art, I feel like I’m part of a longer tradition of artists responding to culture as it unfolds.