Pop: the begining of post modernity.

Pop art was the beginnings of post modernism. It was the first major movement to look back. In terms of Liechtenstein; he in particular looked back to the vintage comics of his childhood and paid homage to them by blowing up scenes from the comics and painting them on large scale canvases. In Ray Johnson's work, took photographic references of old popular figures and included them in his collages, all of this years before Warhol celebrity based work. Then there is Andy himself, who used celebrities as well as popular branded products in his multimedia works. James Rosenquist; another americain pop artist, took his call mainly from US billboards showing the American dream and juxtapose them with the reality of living in the USA.

In Britain, Peter Blake & Richard Hamilton were also post modern in their approach, often credited with being the first piece of pop art with Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, takes from american culture, not via a homage but taking clippings and cuts from the media of the time. Blake did this this too with images of Elvis, Ricky Nelson and Frankie Avalon, as well as a vinyl record.

The main things that makes these pieces post modern is the idea of the fusion or blurring  of low and high culture. Prior to these pieces/artists, art was considered for the upper classes, snobs if you will. But inclusion or just references of pop figures and consumerist imagery, art could begin to speak to the masses. This is what is known as intertextuality. References will always be made this things gone before are common place, everything is a copy of a copy. True originality, there is no such thing. Even though it was frowned upon at the time for being subversive or just offense to the old guard of artists. It has penetrated popular thought and now as a style it is a given.