It appears in the United States and England in 1955 and becomes a characteristic style in the 60s.

The term Pop Art (an abbreviation of the words Popular Art) was first used in 1954 by the English critic Lawrence Alloway to refer to the popular art that was being created in advertising, industrial design, posters and illustrated magazines.

They thus represented the most conspicuous components of popular culture, of powerful influence on daily life in the second half of the twentieth century. It was a return to figurative art, as opposed to the abstract expressionism that has dominated the aesthetic scene since the end of World War II. His iconography was that of television, photography, comics, cinema, and advertising.

Aiming at the ironic critique of society's bombardment of consumer objects, it operated with mass aesthetic signs of advertising, comics, illustrations. But at the same time that it produced a criticism, Pop Art supported itself and needed the consumption goals, which it was inspired by and often produced its increase in consumption, as happened, for example, with Andy Warhol's Campbell Soups.

Also, much of what was considered tacky became fashionable. Since both taste and art have a certain value and meaning according to the historical context in which it takes place, Pop Art provided the transformation of what was considered vulgar into refined, and brought the art of the masses closer, demystifying it because used its own and popular objects.

Its main features are:

Figurative and realistic language referring to the customs, ideas, and appearances of the contemporary world;

Theme drew from the urban environment of major cities, their social and cultural aspects: comics, magazines, hyped newspapers, photographs, commercials, cinema, radio, television, music, popular shows, elements of consumer society and convenience. (canned foods, refrigerators, cars, roads, gas stations, etc.);

Absence of critical planning: themes are conceived as simple motives that justify the realization of painting;

Expressionless, preferably frontal and repetitive representation;

Combining painting with real objects integrated into the composition of the work, such as plastic flowers, bottles, etc., as a new Dadaist form in line with the new times;

Natural and enlarged shapes and figures (Lichtenstein's comic book formats);

Preference for references to social status, fame, violence, and disaster (Warhol), sensuality and eroticism (Wesselmann, Ramos), symbols of industrial technology and consumer society (Ruscha, Hamilton, etc.);

Use of materials such as acrylic, polyester, and latex paint to produce pure, bright and phosphorescent colours inspired by industry and consumer objects;

Reproduction of everyday objects in considerably large size, turning the real into hyperreal.

We highlight the exponent artists of Pop Art:

Andy Warhol (1927-1987). He was the best known and most controversial figure in pop art. Warhol showed his conception of the mechanical production of the image as a substitute for manual work in a series of portraits of idols of popular music and film such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Warhol understood public personalities as impersonal and empty figures, despite the rise of society and celebrity. Similarly, and using mainly the technique of screen printing, he highlighted the impersonality of the mass-produced object for consumption, such as Coke bottles, Campbell soup cans, automobiles, crucifixes, and money. He produced films and records for a music group, encouraged the work of other artists, and a monthly magazine.