Investigation: Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was an influential American artist, filmmaker, model, music producer, photographer, and the list goes on. Warhol delved deep into the art world to create his imprint on the world. He revolutionised a plethora of artistic styles, one of which was the blotted line technique. He would tape two sheets of paper together, paint with ink on one side, press the pages together when the ink was semi dried to create irregular lines, and fill it in with watercolours. He used this technique through his college years until he discovered pop art. It had been prevalent in England and had made its way to post-World War II America. He used rubber stamps with paint on canvas to make each print look the same. Although his canvas art proved to be successful, he found himself to be slow with a canvas and discovered silk screening. This technique was carried out with a specially prepared silk stencil to create multiple replicates of the pattern. The many layers of paint blurred the edges in mockery of perfectionism. Silk screening is the technique Warhol used for the remainder of his life. Warhol's art reflected the American culture oriented around popularity, hence pop art. Examples include his piece of the most popular soft drink of all time, Green Coca Cola Bottles, and his portraits of some of the most famed celebrities of the time.
Andy Warhol's Soup is Good uses a basic universal object in such a manner that it has become art. Repetition is the primary principle evident in the piece. The repetition of the colour and shape of the soup cans helps to convey its message about mass-production in the industrial age and shines a light on commercialism, as well as creating unity. Although similar, the colour of the cans differentiates. The tones of red and white are mildly tweaked to comment on how industrialism isn't 100% reliable. Warhol seemed apathetic to any arrangement, so the museum arranged the soup cans in a shelf like manner in order of release. The arrangement created movement from left to right; up to down. Warhol seems as though he would have been desperate for the idea, or perhaps just naïve, because a student fresh out of university is often not very affluent and, surely, wouldn't be willing to give up $50 just for an idea, especially considering economic inflation. Even then, the idea was simple, easy. Keep it simple, stupid indeed! In fairness, the riches he earned from Soup is Good and his other famous paintings and the fame he gained from them makes that $50 look like peanuts.
His ode to the late Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Diptych, contrasts the starlet's life with her unfortunate death. The gaudy colour of the left-hand-side represents the high life she lived, in contrast to the right half that represents her demise with black and white. The unity of the two sides is aided by the identical shape and size of the Marilyns, which, in turn, also creates balance. The reference photo used by Warhol was of a sad Monroe, but his edgeless silk screen print blurred her emotion similarly to how the media blurred her image. The blurred edges also represent her imperfections, despite society placing celebrities on a pedestal. The faded and smudged side, with its darkness and dullness, represents her demise. Possibilities of Monroe's legacy are characterised by the fading and smudging: will her memory fade out of relevance or will the media taint her image? The repetition of the portraits emphasises her abundance in the media; her fame.
Andy Warhol's philosophy makes me feel better about my art when I think it's awful because, technically, anything can be art. Although, this doesn't necessarily mean it isn't bad art. My Year 9 Art self-portrait donned a 4-square pop art style. The colour schemes were inspired by some of my favourite characters, similar to how he paints what interests him.
For inspiration for his iconic 1962 piece, Soup is Good, he paid a friend $50 for the idea to paint something he loved, perhaps money or a can of soup. He explained, “I used to drink [soup]. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years, I guess, the same thing over and over again.” He created a print to give each can a mass-produced, impersonal touch. He made a total of 32; one for each flavour of Campbell's soup. Although he gave no instruction to their placement, they were arranged in chronological order of release. He received widespread acknowledgement and critics felt the simplistic nature of the art was an insult to the prevalent Surrealistic style of the time. The pop art movement was a rebellion against the pretentious, overly intense, abstract art of the time. Its simplicity and usage of familiar recognisable products made it so popular with audiences. The previous trend of Surrealist art often had deeper, psychoanalytic meanings that only art aficionados could have understood. The basic concept that was pop art made it accessible to everyone, paving the way to its success. This proved Andy Warhol's theory that anything can be art. He even stated that his art isn't original, he just felt it was easier to make copies. This shows that he revolutionised efficiency of art with his silk screen printing.
His famed work, Marilyn Diptych, displays 25 identical coloured portraits of Monroe on the left-hand-side and the right has 25 black and white fading portraits; totalling 50. The artwork was made in memory of Marilyn Monroe as she had recently passed away. The intention of the painting was to make a social comment on her fame and legacy. Her face is distorted by the blurring effect of the silk screening technique, critiquing the stupidity of perfection and hiding the sad expression on Monroe's face. The sadness reflects the rumour that her barbiturate overdose had a suicidal motive.
Warhol was very evasive about revealing the intentions of his art to attain a degree of mystery. He would often confuse and entertain critics and scholars with his charisma to avoid explanation and understanding. It is, however, evident that his art is very ambiguous and open-ended. His works are open to interpretation and are even sometimes self-contradictory. Distorting brands and the faces of celebrities he made portraits for criticised America's obsession with money and fame. However, his own desire for money and fame as well as his repeated usage of consumer goods and celebrities in his artworks implied that he also celebrated commercialism in American culture. His search for fame encouraged him to send his art to galleries, including MOMA that rejected his now thousand dollar painting. He managed to get his big break when a museum in one of the most famous cities in the world, and perhaps one of the most populated in America at the time, Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
He was born in 1928 into a Czechoslovakian immigrant family, his father a construction worker and his mother an embroiderer. They lived in the Eastern European area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where they maintained their Slovakian culture. His affliction with chorea that saw him bedridden, causing him to miss months of school and return with pink blotches that left him with low self esteem and a lack of acceptance from other students. This, Warhol's childhood room strewn with celebrity memorabilia and his love of movies accredit his desire for fame and fortune. His bed-bound state led his skilful artist mother and brothers to give him drawing lessons, which he discovered he had a passion for. He took interest in photography when he was 9 years old, when his mother bought him a camera. His father's passing in 1942 devastated him. His father supported his artistic endeavours and wrote in his will that Andy's inheritance went toward his college fund. He graduated from high school in 1945 and attended Carnegie Institute for Technology in pictorial design. He then graduated from college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1949. College was the time when Warhol discovered his blotted line technique. This new technique offered him many opportunities, such as making Christmas cards for Tiffany and Co., shoes for I Miller, and several album cover and book illustration gigs. Post-War America saw commercialism, industrialism and vitality grow. The pop art frenzy in the United Kingdom during the 1950s spread to America when Warhol saw paint and canvas as his new tools. His creativity branched into other artistic areas such as filmmaking. He made long, avant-garde movies that he would slow down to lengthen them even more and taunt his audience. His film "Empire" was an 8-hour film showing the Empire State Building. Another of his works, "Sleep," was simply a man sleeping for 5-and-a-half hours.
His earlier works weren't particularly hyped, until his breakthrough in 1962: Soup is Good. He gained notoriety for his bland, gimmicky "art" that was supposedly nothing more than cans of soup. He continued with pop art, using popularity as a theme in most of his work. He revolutionised the definition of art by broadening it. Anything could be art. Everything can be art. This was a revelation that opened the possibilities as to what could be considered art. The previous art era had been before World War II, and it was the age of Surrealism, Dadaism and Impressionism. Art didn't have to be that extravagant and surreal anymore, something as basic as a can of soup could still have a deep meaning behind it. As much as critics would attack the basic style, it completely changed the art world forever.
His portrait of Marilyn was made at a time when she was perhaps the most popular celebrity and had recently passed away. He had recently started using his silk screening technique when it was produced.