For this week’s blog on contemporary art, I choose a very short but powerful essay written by English artist Richard Hamilton. This particular essay was bout ‘pop’ which is a brevity for popular culture. The title of this essay is “For the Finest Art, Try Pop.” As you can extract from the title Hamilton discusses his opinion on how pop culture has influenced and ‘fine art.’ Admittedly I stumbled for the true point to his essay. It is slightly convoluted and wanders on tangents that disconnect the reader. But if read closely, you can follow how he brings you back to his primary objective. Essentially, Hamilton postulates that “pop-fine-art” a construct of the modern mass entertainment industry is influenced on the unconventional outlook of society’s changing landscape. He admits at one part of the essay that two previous movements of the 20^th century have instigated the attempt of artists to delineate the “image of society in flux.” The “Dada” movement and the “Futurist” movement revolutionized art in this fashion. Although quite different in philosophical perspective, they both similarly used propaganda to promote their perception of art as a vehicle for their take on society. I found it interesting that although Hamilton stated that Futurism itself has died, it seems as if this new pop-art could be construed as a combination, or a “cross-fertilization” as he calls it, of Dada and Futurism. I also found it interesting how he exemplified the modern equivalent, or pop art, to traditional fine art. He compares the playboy playmate of the month to an odalisque painting. Finally the very last thing I wish to discuss was the last comment Hamilton made in the second paragraph. He states that in order for the “artist not to lose much of his ancient purpose he may have to plunder the popular arts.” I found this intriguing, Hamilton feels the modern day artist has to rob the popular arts to recover what he claims is the artist’s “rightful inheritance.” I believe this is a pessimistic but very true statement, the modern world has definitely moved into a time where pop-art surrounds our everyday lives and overwhelms the true artist; it is indeed a noble but almost futile pursuit.