Pop Art refers to a movement during the mid- to late-1950s in the UK and US that used images from popular culture to create fine art. It was inspired by the everyday and created by artists who sought to mirror identifiable images, critique the newly booming consumerist market, and blur the lines between “high” art and “low” culture. High art, or fine art, refers to the traditional and established style that focused on themes of morality, mythology, and history. Low culture referred to the post-WWII era of inexpensive and mass-produced goods that were becoming everyday, commonplace items. Subject matter for a colorful pop art piece may be a loaf of white bread made by a popular brand or the artist’s take on comic book characters.

Pop artists wanted to highlight their belief that everything is interconnected, and what better way to connect art and commodities than to represent commodities as art?

Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein are two famous New York Pop artists who are among those credited with starting the movement. Andy Warhol mirrored commercial printing methods by screen printing images like Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s soup cans, and startling news articles onto large canvases. Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings were inspired by comics, so he would use primary colors, thick outlines, and Benday dots to make his paintings look machine made. Both styles were nods of critique towards mass-media and popular culture at the time, and their methods were ultimately responsible for elevating that pop culture to the level of fine art.

Teaching Pop Art in the Classroom

Introduce students to the concept of pop art by teaching them how to draw pop art, and then having them color or paint their creations using vivid colors. Inspiration for their unique art piece can be found everywhere.

Drawing inspiration from our everyday surroundings and bringing them into the classroom helps students connect their studies to the real world. Teaching Pop Art can help bring this topic up in the classroom because the objective is to have students draw their inspiration from the real world. Having students relate what is happening today to what they are learning in their curriculum, whether they are the things they need to know about or things they need to better understand, will help them critically think about the lesson and create a connection. Whether the connection is literal or more conceptual, it will definitely inspire interesting thoughts, writing, or in this case – art!

Download Pop Art Food Posters from How to Teach Art to Children, grades 1–6 for your guide to making Pop Art Food Posters.

Start with a Discussion

1. Show your students different examples from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.
2. Ask your students if they recognize any of these objects (examples include Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s soup, Drowning Girl). If not, explain their relevance at the time (actress, food, and DC Comics) and ask what they think Warhol and Lichtenstein would paint today.
   
   In the 1960s, Kellogg’s released its new breakfast item, the Pop-Tart, originally called a Fruit Scone, but had its name changed as a pun on the Pop Art movement.

3. Have students practice making dots with the tips of colored pens on practice paper. Experiment with placing dots closer together to illustrate how the color becomes darker than when the dots are far apart. Practice mixing two dot colors to show how the color changes.

How to Make a Pop Art Food Poster

1. Provide each student with a pencil, a ruler, white construction paper (9″ x 12″), a fine-tipped black permanent marker, and assorted watercolor markers. Have them begin thinking about the food item they want to draw.
2. Tell the students to use their pencil to draw the outside of the food item only, no inside lines or shading. The food item should fill the page.
3. Next, have them trace over the pencil with the black marker.
4. Have the students use the watercolor markers to make dots (only dots) to add color to their drawings. Remind them to think back on how the dots worked during practice so they know they can mix colors by combining two, and they can make areas darker by placing dots closer together.
5. The student should choose one or two colors that contrast with their food for the background. Using the ruler, have them draw colored stripes to fill in the background.
6. Last but not least, make sure each student signs his or her artwork!
    

Suggestions on When to Teach Pop Art

A poster art activity project is a great way to get students engaged in creating a work of meaningful art. Some kids will choose to make funny pop art posters, while others will stick to traditional imagery. Either way, this fun project is sure to produce lots of variety among students, and that’s a good thing.

These colorful posters would make for a great beginning-of-the-year activity, especially if they are up for back-to-school night. They would make wonderful decorations, but also the lesson taught with this project could jumpstart a classroom into encouraging a growth mindset for the year to come. Promoting the idea that students should continually try to make a connection with their lessons to the real world around them is a great way to start the year.

This could also make for a fun end-of-the-day activity, especially on a Friday. It would be interesting to see if students came back to class on Monday with new pop culture references they didn’t bring up in the original discussion. It might be a good idea to make a list of pop culture items during the discussion and later ask if there are any the students want to add.

Resources

Teachers continue to advocate that arts education is important in preparing children to develop the skills needed to become well-rounded thinkers, and rightly so. Arts education, including pop art, teaches students the following skills that will prepare them to be successful:

• creativity
• using their imagination to discover innovative ideas that are essential to progress
• collaboration
• learning how to communicate effectively and that no matter how small their part is their contribution is important
• confidence—by exploring their talents they take risks and step outside of their comfort zones
• critical thinking

Art requires students to use observation, reasoning, logic, and problem solving to both complete their projects and analyze famous works of art.

Additional Books to Check Out

How to Teach Art to Children by Evan-Moor

Pop Art Book – a collaboration with the Wolverhampton Art Gallery 

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol by Andy Warhol

Pop Art by Klaus Honnef

Roy Lichtenstein, 1923–1997 by Janis Hendrickson

Fun Fact: The best Pop Art pieces are at London’s Tate Gallery – check out this Tate Kids YouTube video on Pop Art.

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Mineko Inouye currently works as the project lead for the Marketing and Communications department at CSU Long Beach. Before moving into Higher Ed, she worked as an afterschool teacher/site supervisor at an LA-based learning center. There she could see that students throughout LAUSD were learning at different paces based on their school, so she avidly used instructional workbooks like Evan-Moor’s to help bridge the gaps between her students. She’s thrilled to be assisting Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team. She loves the company because they, like her, will always be passionate about helping students learn.