Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg influence the Pop art movement?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Five Andy Warhol paintings of Campbell's soup cans, each labeled with a different soup variety, displayed in a row on a white wall at Museumsquartier in Vienna. — Pop art *Campbell's Soup Cans*, polymer paint on canvas by Andy Warhol, 1962; a selection of five on display in the Museumsquartier, Vienna.

Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg were pivotal figures in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to the Pop art movement, often associated with the "Neo-Dada" label. Their work challenged the era's dominant artistic norms by incorporating everyday objects and popular imagery into their compositions.12

Robert Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg’s "combine" paintings, which integrated found objects like Coca-Cola bottles and commercial packaging, treated the canvas as a "flatbed" for diverse imagery rather than a space for traditional expression. By utilizing newspaper photographs and comic-strip illustrations, he anticipated the Pop aesthetic, eventually adopting silk-screen techniques to incorporate mass-media imagery into his work.31

Jasper Johns

Johns influenced Pop art by elevating commonplace subjects—such as flags, targets, and beer cans—to the status of fine art. His work, notably Painted Bronze (Ale Cans), implicitly declared consumer culture worthy of artistic attention. By rejecting emotional expression in favor of ironic, recognizable emblems, Johns provided a template for many subsequent Pop artists to explore the intersection of art and everyday life.21