e eventual recognition of Pop Art as a movement took the majority of the 1950s but early Pop art was very interesting and unique to the art world. When Pop art was recognized as a shared phenomenon, there was hesitation as to what to call it . Some suggested New Realism based on an analogy between French and American movements promoted by Pierre Restany. Others suggested Anti-Sensibility Painting but people discredited this name because it jumped the gun; The majority of people thought that it was only thought of as Anti-Sensible because it was new and unfamiliar. A third name was Common Object Art, the closest suggestion to the later name of Pop art, and was used because this new art contained mainly commonplace, everyday objects, people, and placesobjects from Popular culture. Eventually the name Pop art came along and stuck, it being perfect for this new wonder. The major pop artists of the 1950s, such as Jasper Johns (see appendix C) and Robert Rauchenberg (see appendix D), took their images from everyday life. Johns painted the American flag and map as well as words, numbers and letters. Rauchenbergs pieces contained reproductions of familiar people, places and objects, and created combine-paintings from paint, silk-screens, prints, three dimensional sculpture, and collaged paper. Their paintings were still somewhat abstract expressionist and stayed away from politics. From about 1955 until 1960, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauchenberg shared a studio and were the first and best audience for each others art. While their art is different, upon looking back at it, both Johns and Rauchenbergs art had a kind of proto-Pop art eminence . Rauchenberg deals, then, with a profusion of objects and events that he can accept with in a capacious aesthetic. Johns on the contrary, does not take an optimistic pleasure in the connectivity that random events generateIf Rauchenberg is the type of artist as radar operator, Johns is the artist as textual...
