The most important aspect of Pop Art is often overlooked; it turned the attention away from Abstract Expressionism which had dominated post-war art. After the artworld tired of pouring & spattering of paint, the precision of Pop Art was new and exciting. The artists were creating precise images using media considered to be "commercial" or used in industry, like silkscreen (Warhol), stenciling (Lichtenstein) collage (Wesselmann) or photo-based images (Close, and Rosenquist). The sudden return to figurative work built on earlier movements going back to 1900 depicting consumer goods and advertising (see references online to the Museum of Moderna Art's exhibition "High/Low), but brought it back to center-stage. Later, as the pendulum swung the other way, the overloaded images of Pop were supplanted by Minimalism, but the inspiration continued. The use of non-traditional materials, and the elevation of commonplace objects and imagery, continued and had a major impact in Neo-Geo in the early 1980's and even later with computer imaging and replicated items being accepted as "artwork"
