Engagement with Mass Media
Definition
This term refers to the use of mass media, such as television, film, advertising, and social media, as both subject and medium in art, often exploring the ways in which mass media shapes culture, identity, and perception, and how artists can critique or subvert these influences through their work, a theme that has been central to contemporary art since the rise of Pop Art.
History
Engagement with mass media has been a central theme in contemporary art, particularly since the 1960s, where artists like Andy Warhol began to use imagery from advertising, film, and television to explore the impact of mass media on culture and identity. This engagement often involves a critique of consumerism, the commodification of art, and the ways in which media shapes public perception and experience.
Notable Examples
Andy Warhol
Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962
Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989
Key Artists & Movements
Key figures include Andy Warhol, whose works often appropriate images from mass media to explore themes of celebrity, consumerism, and the banal, and Barbara Kruger, whose text-based works use the language and imagery of advertising to critique power, identity, and social norms.
Techniques & Materials
Techniques involve the use of various media, including painting, printmaking, video, installation, and digital art, often incorporating images or themes from mass media. Artists may appropriate, alter, or subvert media content, using it to explore the relationship between art and mass culture, and to critique the influence of media on society and the individual. The engagement with mass media in art often blurs the boundaries between high and low culture, challenging traditional notions of originality and authorship.
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