Pop art is a relatively new form of art which is created around culture and pop art themes are based on issues and tastes that are dominant in society at the time.

The pop art movement probably started in Britain somewhere in the middle of the twentieth century. At the same time, the phenomenon also gained momentum in the United States of America.

Through the history of pop art one can decipher popular mindsets and get an idea of the evolution of society through time. Pop art is after all, all about popular themes and reflects the prevailing culture in society.

Pop art paintings may even involve a popular advertisement or cartoon or film character, for instance.

Pop art should not be considered an incomplete or odd art form. In fact, experts categorize it as one of the sub-genres of modern art. Through the annals of pop art, different trends in different parts of the world at different times are recorded in history.

American pop art, for example, was believed to have marked the development of representational art, by using images from mass media. This was a whole new concept in America in the 1950s and may have had to do with burgeoning commercialism.

Spanish pop art artists like Eduardo Arroyo used his creations to voice his opinion on nature and environmental issues.  Other popular Spanish pop art artists include Manolo Valdés and Rafael Solbes. The duo was known to use comics and images from mass media to create their art.

In recent years, pop art has gained popularity in Japan where comics have a very important part in social life. Most Japanese animations, unlike any other part of the world targets street culture rather than children and pop artists therefore have a vas array of topics to employ.

In fact because of the varied content of Japanese art and their skill in the area, Japanese pop art has great demand and is much appreciated around the world. It is not uncommon to find such art in any pop art gallery around the globe. This is also because Japanese cartoons, especially the cartoons that feature older characters portray grown-up themes and hence draw an older fan-following.

Besides, these cartoons are made with such expertise and so much thought that they appear almost life-like.

Japanese culture is also more open to receiving messages that are suited for adults in cartoon format.

Pop Art is an artistic movement that arose in the mid 1950s. It was mostly created and developed within the art-loving cities of New York and London. The inspiration for pop art paintings was essentially rooted in western Capitalist society and they therefore reflected the rapid progress of production and consumption during those years. The combination of pop and art does not represent a single artistic style but it is a term that collectively merges several works of art that were created between the mid 50′s and the mid 60′s by a few artists in order to reflect society’s ideals in an ironic and critical way.

The pop art artists of that time were creating in a lot of different areas such as: movies, theater, fashion, plastic art, music and paintings. Classic Pop Art Paintings include Andy Warhol’s ‘Cans of Campbell Soup’ and ‘A Shot of Marilyn Monroe’, plus Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Drowning Girl’ and ‘Whaam’. Both of these artists remain incredibly acclaimed and popular till this day.

Pop art paintings are characterized by a choice of subject borrowed from the culture of modern society and are often painted in bright industrial colors. Artists such as Warhol extract the every-day object from its normal, daily context and transform it into a symbolic icon. They do this by blowing up the images, coloring them with bright luminous paints and mechanically duplicating them and placing them next to one another – almost like manufactured products in a factory.

Pop Art Paintings these days, often portray music and movie icons in bright and industrial colors, mirroring the effect used by Warhol and the other painters of this artistic style. The images of these popular icons can be extracted from famous movie scenes or iconic photographs. Some artists now create paintings and portraits of this style from personal photos, which make for great original gifts for others.