Recently I spent a considerable amount of time reading an interesting article on the history of the pop art movement in Australia, and how it differs from that of the United States. In the United States many artists were welcomed into mainstream society and given an opportunity to express their opinions, while other artists faced censorship and isolation. This was in part done as a way of helping the country heal itself from the effects of the Great Depression. However, in Australia the same artists were censored and sometimes even persecuted for expressing political views in their art.
There is an interesting story to tell about this process of integration that occurred between Australian and American art movements. The famous writer, Emmeline Bouvier, was living in New York City when World War II broke out. She managed to leave the city and go to Australia here she began to paint. She became very popular amongst the Aussies for her painting of the Burdock Woman which showed her as being feminine and beautiful. It is possible that this was partly because Bouvier had been in the Aussies during the World War II and had been lucky to have family there who could speak English. Many of the artists that began to move to Australia during the war also spoke English, but it is unlikely that this helped them to be able to communicate and draw upon personal experiences that they would otherwise not have been able to do so freely.
One of the Aussies living in the United States at the time was a woman by the name of Coral Bell who drew a number of cartoons based on animals, such as dogs and cats, and incorporated comic book style elements into her drawings. This led to her being called a “comic artist” which was quite popular at the time. The comic art movement began to take off in the US and was known as the “comics movement”. As mentioned above, Coral Bell was living in Australia at the time and this is where she may have first come into contact with the pop art movement.
Another artist that was living and working in Australia at the time was Bill Griffith who was actually working as a construction worker. He was also studying art and drawing as well as working as a cook and a handy man. He began to draw comic art while still working in his building job and this led him to study illustration full time. He ended up having some success with his work and he continued to live in Australia after leaving school to complete more of his artwork in this style.
The most famous of all comic artists who lived in Australia at the time were the creators of the cartoon show Peanuts. Charles Schultz did most of the writing and he also did most of the drawing. Artistically speaking, there is not too much that separated the comic art movement from the other artistic movements that had been happening before it and this is especially true with the likes of artist Joe Simpson. When one looks at a piece of the Pop Art movement, it can be hard to tell if it came from Charles Schultz or Joe Simpson because they each created their own comic art and there are similarities to what can be seen today.
One of the most interesting aspects of this period of the art movement is the type of people who would become involved and participate in it. This is something that has been studied to this day and it is very interesting to see how the different types of people influenced the movement and what they thought would suit them best. It is interesting to see how Pop Art effected people so negatively and how many still believe in its ideals even though the concept has been widely discarded by the public. A pop art movement without people is useless and therefore it is interesting to see how things have changed now that the public has largely rejected the concept all together.
Beulah Hall 